


Sonic Forces: The Backstories

by kevpho



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 19:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13864206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kevpho/pseuds/kevpho
Summary: This (slightly AU) story will hope to expound on Infinite's Backstory as a mercenary and how the Jackal Squad met, how the Jackal Squad got involved with Eggman, and how the Phantom Ruby was discovered.





	1. Infinite's Backstory Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story arc will expound on why Infinite became a mercenary.

He was wounded. Hurt. He felt so sick, as he laid sprawled out on the ground.

The smell of blood was strong.

“You’re weak.” the voice taunted. “If you weren’t so weak, your folks wouldn’t have died.”

He gritted his teeth. Willing himself, he pushed his body to stand up. In the hazy state of his mind, all his brain could register was that the figure stood in front of him was a species of wolf.

It was too dark to see colour.

“If you were strong enough, I would have been the one dying today.” the voice stated.

Suddenly, he was pushed off balance. He fell back down again onto the wooden floor. Groaning in pain, he heard chuckles - pure, sadistic chuckles; the kind of chuckle of someone sick enough in the head to thoroughly enjoy taking a life.

The smell of blood was strong, down here, on the floor.

“Well, my job here is done.” the voice grumbled again. “I was told I only had to dispose of James and the wife. Consider this your lucky day.”

Heavy footsteps slowly faded in the distance. The rattles of a gun being holstered rang into his ears.

“I am… not… weak…!” he gritted out.

He pushed his way off the floor, and stumbled his way out of the house and staggered some distance. He had no idea how long he walked; it felt like an eternity. He felt exhausted.

“I am not weak…!” he groaned out, as loud as he could, before he collapsed back onto the dirt ground. He felt frustrated. He felt defeated.

“I am…” he coughed. “... not… weak…!”

That was the last thing he breathed out before he passed out.

 

-

 

He woke up in an unfamiliar place.

He quickly came to the conclusion that he was brought into shelter by someone who found him as a survivor. Scanning his surroundings, he realised that he was in a slightly uncomfortable bed, inside some cottage; the walls were wood, the floor was wood, and the bed he was in was brown.

This place screamed rustic.

However, he noticed that there were no other sounds than the chirps of birds travelling into the house from the nature outside.

He was alone. The window was big enough for him to get out of.

Contemplating his choices, he can either stay or leave.

Staying would mean that he had to deal with whatever questions the person who took him in wanted to ask. Since he felt physically fit - apart from some aches in some muscles - he decided to leave through the window.

Climbing out of the bed and onto the windowsill, he swiftly made his exit.

There was no other people outside the house, either. Silently thanking whoever that saved him, he made his way back to his home.

Was it even a home anymore? A house without people living in it isn’t a home. His family was dead. Killed right in front of him.

And he could not do anything to save them.

Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists tight, a surge of anger went through his body. His fur raised from the sudden tensing of his muscles.

“He was right…” he gritted out. “I… am weak…”

But before he could continue with that train of thought, he noticed that he had already reached where he wanted to go. His home. House. Whatever.

It didn’t matter anymore.

As he walked towards the entrance, he could still smell the blood stained into the wooden floorboards. The blood of his parents.

His parents; that were alive just this time yesterday.

And now they were dead. Killed ruthlessly, by some mercenary. He didn’t understand why they were killed. They didn’t deserve it. His mother didn’t deserve it.

His father, though…

He was the leader of some mercenary team. Perhaps he had gotten into some conflict which ensured his death. He wasn’t able to protect himself, wasn’t able to protect his wife. And now, his son gets the bill.

Strange - he thought, as he stared at the insides of the house that he had stayed in for 14 years - he felt strangely empty. He doesn’t feel intense sorrow; or immense rage.

Was something wrong with him? His parents were killed, and all he could feel was… Well, nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was like all of the emotions he was capable of feeling was suddenly taken away from him.

He recalled all of the things he did in this house. The house he grew up in. The house where he learnt to speak, learnt to cook, learnt to love. All the activities he ever did in the house: write, eat, sleep, conversing, drawing.

The bed that he slept in and did… things in.

He made up his mind.

He would become a mercenary. He would seek revenge on this wolf that killed his family. He will play this dangerous game of life and death.

And besides, he knew that being a mercenary paid quite well each task you took.

But before that, he had to dispose of memories. The jackal grabbed the red sword - a scimitar - that was his father’s. Grabbing the kerosene, he poured the contents out onto the wooden surfaces of the house, and then set fire to them using simple safety matches.

How ironic.

 

-

 

A jackal and a fox sat in a room across each other. The jackal was black and white, and had a large white puff of mane grew down from the centre of his head. The fox was reddish-brown, with a lighter shade of blonde on his muzzle, with a small, mohawk-like feature the same shade as his muzzle on his head.

“I need you to kill him.” a smooth male voice said, while presenting the photographs of the target.

A male wolf, with dark grey fur, with several small scars on his body. From what the photograph captured, the wolf wore a brown ten-gallon hat, a camo-themed neckerchief, black fingerless gloves, and brown boots. He had a cigarette in his mouth.

“Woah,” the jackal acted mock surprise as he leaned back in the black seat, his fur almost blending into the chair. He lit up a cigarette and started to smoke. “The guy’s got a mean look, capt’n. A mercenary, for sure. What’s in it for me if I do complete the job?”

“I guess they don’t call you Double Sighted; Ultimate Mercenary for nothin’.” The reddish-brown fox commented as a smirk appeared on the vulpine’s face, referring to the jackal’s heterochromatic eyes. “If you do complete this, Finnigan…”

A furrow of the brow was triggered by the sound of his name. Seeing the response, the fox snorted as the smirk grew wider.

“You would become the owner of eight hundred beautiful mobiums.”

“Why do you want his head?” the jackal inquired as he sat forward.

Although the offer of 80 thousand rings was already begging him to accept, he needed to know what he was getting himself into. In the harsh, hostile environment of mercenary work, you can never be too careful. Since the moment he took on mercenary work, bounties began to be placed on his head, and people started having him on hit lists.

Finnigan stared into the fox’s deep marine eyes, as the vulpine leaned back in his seat. The fox began to speak.

“This mercenary has picked up jobs that have crossed me more times that I would prefer.” he began as he lighted a cigarette. “My goods are always getting damaged or stolen, and I did a little background check on this guy…”

The vulpine blew out smoke, slowly. “He’s the guy you’ve been lookin’ for.”

The jackal felt himself hold his breath. He looked at the fox that sat across him with a stern demeanour. Then, he put out his cigarette on the ashtray.

“Are you sure about this, Vulpes?” Finnigan growled under his breath.

“I have no reason to lie to you, Finn.” the fox stated, staring back at the jackal. “I knew about this grudge you held against this particular wolf since the day you told me about it. It made you hate wolves, didn’t it?”

Yes it did. It did made him hate wolves. He hated wolves and thought they were untrustworthy, ruthless creatures. Finnigan never saw a wolf he trusted, or respected.

He had no idea was it his personal bias, or truth.

“I understand that as a mercenary, you’re supposed to separate work from relationship.” the fox added. “However, this is your chance for getting revenge.”

He looked back up, straight at the reddish-brown face of his employer.

“Tell me his name.” he demanded.

“Kanyx the Wolf.” he replied, without falter.

“Kanyx the Wolf…” Finnigan muttered silently as he stared at the photograph. “I will enjoy killing you…”

 

-

 

“Kanyx is a lone mercenary. You won’t have to worry about any allies coming to his aid.”

That was what the fox had said.

It was night. Finnigan arrived at the location where he knew his target would be; a specific saloon in the many towns that this vast desert had to offer. The saloon had quite a number of patrons inside, and it was said that this location would be used by his target to discuss mercenary business.

The jackal took another breath out of his cigarette as he looked to the few cars parked in the tiny parking lot next to the establishment.

‘Well, not today.’ thought Finnigan, putting out his cigarette on the brick walls of the saloon as he walked right through the main entrance, which drew some attention to himself. People who recognised him averted their eyes from him. 

Noticing the various behaviours, the jackal softly chuckled to himself as he made his way to the counter.

“I’m looking for Kanyx the Wolf, you know him?” he whispered softly to the barman.

His response was received, when the barman subtly pointed to the side. With a quick glance, he confirmed his target, sitting at a table - smoking - while his mouth moved, talking to the black cat sat across him.

Nodding his thanks to the barman, he made his way towards his target.

It didn’t matter if his target saw him; he was going to die today. Tonight is the night Kanyx the Wolf dies, in the hands of Finnigan the Jackal.

“Kanyx the Wolf.” he called out as he stood behind his target. And obviously, it had caught the attention of the dark grey wolf.

He turned around and looked at Finnigan straight in the eye.

“Who’re you?” asked Kanyx, as he removed the cigarette from his mouth with his right hand, the stick held between the thumb and pointer finger. From the dim lights of the saloon, the jackal could make out the colours of his eyes; it was honey yellow.

He remembered that exact shade of yellow.

“It doesn’t matter,” Finnigan stated, “someone is looking for you, follow me.”

The wolf gave a skeptical look, as he turned back to glance at the cat sat across him. Then, he turned back to face the black jackal once more.

“Who’s asking?” the wolf growled.

“The Ultimate Mercenary.” he replied.

“What?” Kanyx chuckled. “What kind of a name is that?”

Assessing the situation, Finnigan concluded that the lupine would not get lured outside so easily. He decided on another tactic. The jackal slowly leaned near, close to one of the wolf’s ear on his head, and began to whisper.

“Listen, wolf.” he began, his voice low. “Someone in this room wants your head right now, and you better get the hell out of here.”

‘It wasn’t a complete lie.’ Finnigan mentally added to himself. When he was done getting the message across, he stepped back, and saw the wolf stare straight into his eyes; searching for deceit.

Years as a mercenary trained him to not be intimidated.

“My apologies,” Kanyx said to the feline as he calmly stood up, “I have urgent business to attend to immediately.”

The cat nodded, “Consider my offer; if I don’t hear from you in three days, I’ll take it as a rejection.” he replied, to which the wolf replied with a nod of his own.

“Let’s go.” Finnigan said, as he led Kanyx out of the saloon. “Follow closely.”

“So, who’re you, anyway?” Kanyx asked as they made their way down an obscure alleyway, away from the main streets of the town.

And suddenly, he found his face being pressed into a wall, a hand behind his head and his arms held in a firm lock.

“What the…!?” exclaimed Kanyx, as he tried to break free from the hold by struggling.

“I am the Ultimate Mercenary.” Finnigan replied simply, as he kept the wolf firmly in place; against the brick wall.

Hearing this, the dark grey wolf chuckled darkly, “Heh, getting rid of competition, eh?” came the retort.

“You obviously don’t understand the situation you’re in, lupine.” growled Finnigan.

The wolf scoffed, “Looks like you weren’t lying when you said someone in that saloon wanted my head, however…”

“You’re the one who doesn’t know exactly who they’re messin’ with!” Kanyx roared, as he suddenly moved his footwork, driving his right foot into one of Finnigan’s ankles violently, effectively breaking his balance and giving him the opportunity to break free from the jackal’s clutches.

Finnigan cried out at the unexpected move - bearing the pain in his right ankle - as he swiftly drew out his red scimitar. His enemy also drew out a revolver and cocked it.

As expected, it wouldn’t be an easy task to take down the wolf; not to mention a mercenary with more experience than he does.

But in terms of skill and instinct? The time has come to battle it out.

BANG!

Finnigan dived to the side as he dodged the bullet too fast for his eyes to catch in the dark night. He was in a clear disadvantage; with no protection other than wood from boxes laid around and brick walls of buildings, the gun wielded by the wolf was the biggest threat to him.

Also, wood isn’t exactly a bulletproof material.

Making a quick decision, he decided that his weapon of choice was practically useless in this situation. Thinking on his feet, he sprinted to the closest portable object he could throw - a glass bottle - as another loud bang broke the silence of the night.

The loud gunfire would surely catch the attention of some townsfolk, for sure.

Grabbing the bottle on the box, he threw it in the general direction of Kanyx, hoping that at least the shatters of the glass would get the wolf in some way.

BANG!

A sharp pain on his left arm. The bullet had grazed against his fur and cut open a small wound. It wouldn’t bother him too much. Gritting his teeth, he left the scene, deciding on another plan of action.

“Don’t run, you coward!” taunted the wolf, as Finnigan made his way around the building, attempting to find a way to sneak up on his target.

And as expected, the wolf had ran after him, wanting to end the jackal’s life.

Like he did to his parents.

Finnigan hid around a corner of a building and began to count in his head. A swift movement caught his eyes and he slammed his right fist with all his strength at where he estimated his pursuer’s face would be.

CRACK!

A loud cry was heard; Finnigan had broken the other mercenary’s snout. Knowing the result of his actions caused him to smirk wickedly.

Taking advantage of the surprise, the jackal delivered a series of quick punches, not giving the wolf any opportunities to stand back up; kicking away the wolf’s revolver to a great distance away in the process. However, despite his efforts, Kanyx continued to thrash; his tolerance of pain way higher than the average being thanks to his years of being a mercenary.

Suddenly, his eyes caught onto a very familiar object that the lupine was now holding in his right hand.

A sharp, twisting pain shot through the right side of his face as he felt his skin being sliced open by his very own blade.

“FUCK!” Finnigan cursed out loud as he held onto his bleeding face with his right hand, flinching back from Kanyx. Blinking a few times, he tried to open up his eyes. By some miracle, his vision went unscathed.

“It’s not gonna be easy to take me down, jackal!” declared the wolf, growling, as he stood up from the ground.

The damage done by Finnigan was obvious; the wolf’s face was heavily bruised, and some punches the jackal delivered was so harsh that it managed to cut flesh.

He needed to find that gun before the other could.

Dashing quickly, he gritted his teeth as he beared with the stinging of his wound, and his eyes caught onto the shine caused by the reflection of light on steel.

There it was!

With audible footsteps that are close behind him, he didn’t have much time before he gets brutally stabbed by his own scimitar. The jackal dived right for the gun.

BANG!

The footsteps stopped.

The sound of a body hitting dirt ground reached the jackal’s ears, and metal also rang as the blade once held in the wolf’s grip was let loose. A closer inspection of the other mercenary’s body revealed that the bullet had shot right through the wolf’s head - right between the eyes.

He done it. He felt relief rush through his whole body, and the tension in his muscles disappear into nothing.

But Finnigan still felt inner turmoil. Was it because he lived through the fight and emerged victorious? Was it because of the promised monetary reward of eight hundred mobiums?

Was it because he had finally avenged his parent’s death?

He sighed. He had no idea.

Picking up his blade and holstering the revolver, he decided to make haste to leave the scene before anyone came to investigate. But before that, he sliced off a finger of his target’s corpse and wrapped it around what used to be the dark grey wolf’s neckerchief. He kept it for later.

With a shaky hand from exhaustion, he touched the open wound on the right side of his face. ‘It would surely form a scar’, he thought as he muttered a silent curse.

Even after death, Kanyx the Wolf still managed to leave his mark in the jackal’s life.

Still, it was time to bury the body.

“I am not weak…” muttered Finnigan as he began to move the body somewhere far away from the town.

 

-


	2. Jackal Squad Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This arc of the story will expound on how the Jackal Squad was formed.

A few days after the assassination, the money exchanged with the sliced finger of Kanyx the Wolf was now kept inside his haversack.

Finnigan had bandage wrapped on the right side of his head, where his blade had sliced through. It still stung quite a bit, but he beared with it as he made his way to the inn where he would stay the night. The injury meant that the usage of his right eye is impossible until the wound recovers.

Although it didn’t seem like much, losing the use of an eye actually affected the jackal quite a bit. His perspective was now shifted slightly to one side, and he actually had to adjust to it. Sighing at the thought, Finnigan lit up a cigarette and began to smoke.

While he walked, there was some feeling poking in his gut that told him something was amiss.

The mercenary stopped in his tracks all of a sudden to do a quick check of his surroundings. Paranoia had developed in him the more notorious he became as a mercenary - there could be assassins around the next corner hired to murder him; he cannot afford to guard down.

When he was somewhat sure that nothing was wrong, he continued on his way to the inn which wasn’t far away.

He still couldn’t get rid of the feeling of being watched. Was he just on edge, or was his body telling him something?

Upon reaching the inn, he scanned his surroundings again: People talking to each other about interesting subjects, children running around laughing, merchants trying to sell their goods and produce, the occasional aged car driving by.

Nothing seemed off. 

Feeling a slight wave of relief, he looked at the inn he would be staying in.

It was made of brick, and it was yellow in colour. Windows were scattered around for the different rooms, and it seemed pretty big in size.

Deciding that he had seen enough, he tossed what’s left of his cigarette onto the ground, stepping on it to put it out as he went into the open door of the inn.

“A room for the night.” Finnigan said simply to the person behind the counter.

“That’ll be three hundred rings.” said the red furred rabbit male, and the jackal handed over three mobiums.

Keeping the currency in the drawer behind the counter, the bunny presented the jackal with a room key without delay.

“Second floor, all the way to the left.”

Finnigan made his way up the staircase next to the counter, and was presented with a simple hallway. Following the innkeeper’s instructions, the jackal turned left and passed two doors before reaching his room.

Fitting the key in the lock and turning the key, he unlocked the door and stepped into the room.

It wasn’t much. A simple set up: a bed near a window, a desk with a chair with tissue and some storybooks laid on it. An electrical plug was found right next to the desk. A small shower room with the necessary facilities was found right next to the entrance to the room.

However, the mercenary was quite pleased with the room. Locking the door and setting down his haversack, he decided to take a nap before he would have to get up for dinner.

But he couldn’t sleep.

Because somehow, a male jackal - obviously younger than himself - had snuck into his room, and Finnigan didn’t notice until all this time.

Wow. He really must be out of it, or really affected by inability to use his right eye.

Realising the older jackal’s focus on him, the younger jackal panicked, grabbing Finnigan’s haversack and practically tore open the door in his haste to escape, which also caused the mercenary to spring into action; chasing down the thief of a jackal.

The younger jackal didn’t even manage to reach the staircase before Finnigan had already grabbed a hold of him. The jackal trembled in fear for his life and clutched the haversack tightly, giving the mercenary a pitiful look, as the older jackal stared back with fury evident in his single, exposed eye.

However, realising the other’s fear forced him to calm down after moments.

The poor jackal was so afraid, he didn’t even try to escape or break free and just sat there, shaking. Hence, the older jackal slackened his hold on the younger one. This allowed him to take in the features of the other jackal: he had a small scar on the top of his muzzle, and he sported a dark green headband bandana around his head.

“Hand me back what you took and I won’t harm you.” Finnigan said calmly as he squat down slowly, attempting to not further intimidate the younger jackal.

The mercenary didn’t understand why he didn’t want to cause harm to the kid. Was it because he was a jackal too? Or was it simply because the jackal was… well, a kid?

The jackal continued to shiver. However, it was clear that he was calmer than before. He carefully loosened his hug on the haversack of which he stole, and slowly handed it over to the older jackal.

Grabbing the haversack with his right hand, Finnigan lightly tossed the bag to one side.

He recognised that look. He had that look years ago, on the day his parents died. The mercenary decided he wanted to get to know the child.

“What’s your name?” the older jackal inquired with a gentle voice.

The younger jackal just stared back at Finnigan with wide open eyes, unsure if he should reveal his given name.

“I promise I won’t hurt you.” the mercenary added, attempting to get the younger’s name once more. This seemed to make the younger jackal relax quite a bit.

“My name’s…” the jackal began as he averted his eyes from the older jackal, softly. “Cly… Clyde.”

“How old are you?” asked Finnigan.

“I’m sixteen…” replied Clyde.

Sixteen. Currently, Finnigan himself was nineteen. The kid wasn’t younger than him by too much.

“You’re an orphan, aren’t you?” the mercenary asked for a confirmation of his suspicion.

“Why aren’t you beating me up?” Clyde responded, confused by the other’s actions. “Why aren’t you… I don’t know, angry at me for stealing your stuff?”

“You must be an orphan.” Finnigan confirmed his own suspicions, ignoring the other jackal’s outburst. “No child with an upbringing would want to become a thief.”

The other just stared. The older one sighed.

“I know, because I was once in the same situation as you. Stand up, Clyde.” Finnigan ordered as he stood up himself, grabbing his haversack of money. He opened it up, and the younger jackal caught a glimpse of the contents of the bag and he softly gasped.

The mercenary took out ten mobiums from the bag, and presented it to the other jackal.

“Keep it.” said the mercenary, and Clyde stared at the mobium offered with his jaw hung slightly open, more confused than he was before.

“I… I can’t take it.” Clyde replied as he stared down at his worn boots. He was feeling guilty of his attempted theft, and, why was the other jackal being nice to him?

A small smile tugged at Finnigan’s face after he saw the other’s actions. Clyde felt guilty; for stealing from him, for trying to live a life, despite his harsh childhood without the love, care, or support from any guardians. The kid had a kind soul.

The older jackal made a decision.

“Then, follow me.” Finnigan said.

“What?” Clyde mumbled.

“Join me.” Finnigan attempted again. “I’ll take care of you.”

Hearing this had obviously elicited a response from the younger jackal. His eyes turned slightly glossier, and he blinked a few times. This was his opportunity to finally have something close to a family.

“I…” Clyde spoke, clearing his throat from constriction. Feeling his body move on its own accord, he found himself hugging the older jackal. “I will!”

Taken aback by the sudden hug, Finnigan awkwardly moved his right arm around the younger jackal, patting him gently on the back.

Perhaps this was also his chance to have something close to a family, once more.

 

-

 

“Here!”

Finnigan looked at the smiling younger jackal holding out a piece of woolen, pure white cloth - a short scarf - towards him.

He was confused by the gesture.

The two jackals were currently in a small town close to forests and grassy plains, near the urbanised areas of Mobius that could be reached by a half an hour’s train ride.

“What’s this for?” asked the older jackal.

Finnigan had recovered from the cut on the right side of his face not long ago, and true to his suspicions, it did leave a scar.

Well, it didn’t stop him from being handsome, though.

“I got it for you!” Clyde excitedly replied, as he presented the scarf once more. “Wear it around your neck, Finn!”

Smiling at the gesture of the younger jackal, Finnigan gladly took the gift and tied it around his neck with a simple knot. The thief would have surely kept insisting that he keep it until he actually accepted.

“Sure, but I have fur around my neck too, y’know.” Finnigan joked after tying the scarf as a neckerchief. “I might die from heat stroke.”

“Don’t exaggerate!” laughed Clyde.

In actual fact, the fabric was very soft, so Finnigan felt comfortable having it around his neck. The two jackals continued on their way, walking along railroad to a train station so they could eat, and also travel to someplace else.

“After we eat, we’re gonna do some training.” the experienced mercenary informed the younger one.

“Yeah! I’ve been waiting to use this!” Clyde replied, as he unsheathed a green flame-bladed sword - a flamberge - and admired it for some time as they walked. He beamed at the older jackal. “Thanks for this, Finn!”

“You’re welcome.” he replied. Clyde truly felt like a younger brother to him.

After a few more minutes of walking, they reached the train station they were headed for. The station was on a platform, and it was quite large. In and around the station, there were some gift shops displaying goods, family restaurants and eateries, and obviously, a few ticket booths serving commuters that would board trains headed for different destinations.

Finnigan walked into the nearest restaurant; and it seemed okay for his tastes. As he walked in, the smell of food assaulted his nose, and he saw the restaurant was a simple setup. A bar setting on the counters, and some tables and chairs arranged around. 

The restaurant was kind of packed, but Clyde walked ahead of him and managed to find them their seat.

“Good afternoon, sirs!” a female badger wearing simple clothes greeted, as she presented the jackals with menus. “Here is the menu, I’ll be back for your orders, okay?”

In response, Finnigan nodded, while Clyde replied with a happy “Okay!”

Scanning his menu quickly, Finnigan decided on what he wanted to eat quite easily. However, as for Clyde…

“Hmm, what should I eat?” he wondered as he looked towards the older jackal. “What are you having?”

“Linguine carbonara.” Finnigan replied. “It’s pretty good.”

“Hmm… Pasta?” Clyde mumbled as he read about the other’s choice on the menu. “Well, whatever! I don’t know what to eat; I’ll have what you’re having.”

And with good timing, the waitress came back with a small notepad and a pencil.

“So, may I get your orders?”

“Two linguine carbonara.” Finnigan replied on behalf of both of them.

“Mhm…” the badger mumbled as she scribbled things down. “And drinks…?”

“I’ll have cola!” Clyde responded.

“I’ll have coffee.” Finnigan ordered, and the waitress scribbled down more notes on her notebook.

“Alright, thank you. We’ll get your orders out as soon as we can!” the badger happily replied and walked back towards the counter.

And they waited for their orders. Clyde asked Finnigan about the various missions he took on as mercenary, and his work history, and the older jackal shared his stories.

Suddenly, the familiar glint of light reflecting off steel caught Finnigan’s attention.

Alerted, he turned his head to his left and was presented with a female jackal dressed in camo. He saw the dagger wrapped around her right thigh being subtly unsheathed.

An assassin.

Finnigan jumped from his seat, knocking her out of his way with his left hand as he grabbed Clyde by the arm, making a break from the restaurant. Screams were heard as plates got knocked into the ground by the running jackals.

“Woah!” Clyde exclaimed as he was rushed out of the restaurant by the older jackal. “What’s the big idea?”

“Just run!” Finnigan shouted in response as he glanced behind. The assassin was following close behind. It wasn’t like him to run away; but there were civilians around, and Clyde’s safety mattered more to him currently.

However, after minutes of running non-stop and reaching the outskirts of the town, he could see that Clyde was getting out of breath. The mercenary decided to fight.

“Run, Clyde. And don’t look back.” he instructed. “I’ll meet you at the station later.”

“But-”

“RUN!” he ordered sternly, pushing the younger male away as he turned to face the assassin approaching.

The young thief heard the sharp noise of steel clashing against each other, and he gave one last glimpse behind him before running - as Finnigan instructed.

However, Clyde didn’t feel right. He had to help the older jackal somehow; like he helped him when he took up the role as his guardian. He became a brother to him.

He was the closest thing he had to a family. He can’t just run away without helping.

Stopping in his tracks, Clyde turned back around, looking at the two jackals battling one another some distance away, their blades swishing around dangerously as they moved between the many trees spread across the land.

He had to assist Finnigan.

Well. He didn’t plan on it, but it looked like he had to put his thievery skills back in action.

Finnigan swung his blade held in his right hand, but it was blocked by the female’s own blade. If his life wasn’t in danger, he would have declared it impressive; the other blocking his attacks with a mere dagger.

However, the male mercenary didn’t reveal that he was only playing around at this stage of the fight; subtly testing the enemy’s limits, to know where and when to strike without killing the other. Even if his line of work required him to take lives more often than not, he still had his own set of morals to follow. 

The enemy - even though she was after his life - was still a mercenary trying to earn a living - probably forced into this line of work.

Like him.

For the other party in the fight, the female jackal started to develop a bad feeling in her gut. Her client had wanted the head of Finnigan the Jackal. The Ultimate Mercenary. Ultimate! What he was putting up right now cannot be even half his full potential.

CLANG! - another harsh contact of steel against steel.

The peril of the situation has just caught up to her. She had gotten too ahead of herself; thinking that she could take on one of the most skilled mercenaries in the market. She had made a grave mistake.

Without warning, she felt herself being pulled back by her neck and her dagger was immediately knocked out of her grip by her foe with his red scimitar; a black furred left arm was firmly wrapped around her neck, keeping her in a headlock.

“When did you get there?” Finnigan spoke up after disarming her, surprise quite evident on his face.

“Ah, don’t worry about it!” A higher pitched, male voice was heard from behind her. 

Finnigan sheathed his sword. He had a small smile on his face as he shook his head and puffed a small laugh through his nose.

“You sneaky jackal.” he commented earning a snicker from Clyde, and then turned his head towards the hitman. “Who are you?”

The female refused to speak as she stared straight ahead of herself. She felt her hands being tied with rope by the mobian behind her. Then, she was forced to kneel; having her knee bent from behind.

“You’re probably annoyed. But if you go back without my head, you wouldn’t get anything anyway.” he stated honestly, as he walked over to where the female’s dagger was and picked it up.

She huffed. He was right, and she felt indignant that she did not accomplish her task.

“Who hired you?” another question.

“Just kill me already.” the female jackal spat.

This made Finnigan shut up and stare at her. Then, he walked behind the assassin, stepping right next to Clyde who looked at him with curious eyes. He unsheathed his red scimitar.

The thief felt his mouth slowly hang open, while his eyes widened. Was he going to witness an execution? Shock overcame his mind - He didn’t want to see it! He knew what was going to happen - Finnigan is a mercenary; killing was second nature to him... 

He shut his eyes tightly; wincing as soon as he saw the blade swing down.

“... What?”

The confused question made him open his eyes again. Finnigan had cut the rope that tied her wrists together - He had freed her. Upon the realisation, Clyde let out a breath he didn’t realise he had been holding.

“I took your dagger. You can’t stab me now.” Finnigan smirked at her, holding up the dagger. “Go home.”

Huffing, the miffed female jackal stood up, dusting her pants. She didn’t leave yet, however, and she stood upright and gave the Ultimate Mercenary a side glance. Their eyes met.

“The name’s Cassidy.” she revealed, and turned her head straight forward - avoiding eye contact once more. “I won’t be the same the next time we meet, Finnigan.”

Finnigan chuckled. “Until then.” He replied, and the two male jackals watched the female stride away.

“Well, we better get moving too.” suggested the older jackal, smirking at the other. “I think they should have finished preparing our linguine by now.”

Usually, that would have gotten a laugh, or some kind of witty response. The younger jackal was strangely silent.

“What’s wrong?” asked Finnigan, concerned by the lack of reaction from the thief.

“Y’know…” Clyde began. “I honestly thought you were going to kill her…”

Upon hearing what the other thought, Finnigan stayed silent for a while. The younger jackal didn’t know his codes of honour, as he haven’t shared it to him. All he knew was that he’s a mercenary, and his job was violent.

“I never take a life unless I absolutely have to.” he said to the younger jackal.

Clyde seemed to be deep in thought for a moment. And suddenly, he brightened up, smiling at Finnigan before walking in the direction of the train station.

“Hey Finn, I’m starving!” the younger jackal announced, causing the older jackal to chuckle slightly with amusement as he followed suit. “Do you still want that pasta? I’m thinking of something else, now; actually.”

“What do you fancy?”

“Fish ‘N’ Chips! With Wi-Fi!”

“You can’t eat Wi-Fi.”

Laughter ensued as they made their way back.

 

-

 

Cassidy sprinted. It turns out that if you’re unlucky enough, you’ll run into an unreasonable, anger-inducing, asshole of a client that didn’t seem to be able to tolerate even the concept of failure.

Well, what she did back there was self-defense, anyway. The black cat obviously had the intention to shoot her when he pulled out the pistol. She gave his face a neat, hard roundhouse kick that she was quite proud of - quite literally knocking the feline off his feet - and quickly made her escape.

What did he expect? That she’d be able to actually kill, or even cause harm to one of the best mercenaries out there? Actually, what was she thinking; accepting the task in the first place? It was no simple task to assassinate one of the most skilled mercenaries in the market - it was way beyond her current abilities.

Why did she accept the job?

She turned around a corner, into one of many dark alleyways obscured by the night, between the many tall buildings of the city that she was currently in.

Oh.

She remembered. It went something like this:

“This is the target.” the feline revealed, showing a photograph of Finnigan the Jackal. Cassidy recognised him right away, partly because the other was a jackal, too.

“Are you kidding me?” she exclaimed incredulously. “I won’t even be able to touch him, let alone kill him!”

“Is a simple assassination job too difficult for you, lady?” he nearly purred, smirking as he leaned backwards in his seat. “No wonder I rarely see girls your line of work.”

She hated his guts already, and he had hit a very, very sensitive spot. Poking fun at her just because she’s a female in this male-dominated line of work? She prided herself in the skills she honed as an assassin, and as a mercenary.

Cassidy would become one of the best mercenaries out there!

Oh, she would show this damn cat!

“Fine! I’ll do it!”

That was then. Two days ago.

“Argh, stupid, stupid…!” Cassidy groaned, rubbing her temples as she realised that she had been goaded into accepting the mission. Damn her female pride.

But, first things first, she needed a place to lay low. Crossing such a powerful figure would definitely have put her on more hit lists than she’d like, and she’d probably be dead in a few days if her ex-client had decided that he wanted her dead.

Who was she kidding? He obviously wanted her dead already, and with her delivering that kick in his cat face - probably even more than before. Cassidy pulled out her red-covered phone, quickly scrolling down her list of contacts and dialed the one she wanted to call.

A ring.

Another ring.

Call connected.

“Salvador?”

“Yeah, what’s up, Cass?”

“Is Jesse with you?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Listen, there’s trouble. I’m gonna have to lay low for awhile. I’ll meet you guys in the usual place.”

And with that, Cassidy ended the call.

Better hurry back to their hideout before she gets caught. She had quite a lot of explaining to do to her friends.

About an hour later, a group of three jackals - two male, one female met up in a location unknown. It was some kind of abandoned warehouse, and the female had just finished sharing her story.

“So...” Salvador began, pacing slowly. He wore a red beret. “To sum it up, you accepted a job in anger, tried to kill Finnigan the Jackal, failed miserably, got spared by him, and now you’re on the run from Cyrus the Panther?”

“Argh…” Cassidy groaned at the mention of the feline and the events that occured recently. Why did this happen to her? “Basically, yeah.”

“Damn it, Cassidy!” another jackal - male - spoke out, obviously frustrated with the situation at hand. He had a red neckerchief on. “When will you stop getting provoked by ‘You’re a girl!’ comments?”

“Shut up, Jesse!” lashed the female jackal at the other’s mockery. She was incredibly on edge right now.

“Calm down.” Salvador chided. “Right now, we really need to find Finnigan the Jackal. Any idea where he might be?”

“The last time I saw him was in Green Hill Village, and that was a day ago.” Cassidy replied. “He probably isn’t even there anymore.”

“Green Hill, huh?” Jesse chimed in. “I know a few people there. They might have seen the guy.”

“Make the calls, will you Jesse?” Salvador asked while taking out a laptop from his backpack and also his mobile phone. “Meanwhile, I’ll do some checks with the hotels and inns in that area; there could be a chance that he is staying in the town for a few days before moving.”

Watching the two males jackals suddenly getting busy, Cassidy suddenly felt touched. And she was glad that she had friends that she could depend on; that she could trust with her life that they would stick with her no matter what happened.

“... thanks, guys…”

 

-

 

When Clyde and Finnigan were leaving their room for breakfast minutes ago, they suddenly found themselves facing three other jackals.

The three jackals arrived in an old van, and it was made clear they meant no harm. Currently, the five all sat in the inn’s cafe, discussing something that the young thief wasn’t quite sure about.

“So, what is it that you wanted?” Finnigan asked to the only female sat at their table, playing with his almost-new pack of cigarettes on the table with one hand.

“I need your help.” replied Cassidy.

“She’s got on the bad side of Cyrus the Panther.” stated the red-hatted jackal. “Are you familiar with him?”

“Quite.” the Ultimate Mercenary crossed his arms as he frowned. “How did that happen?”

“Long story short - I failed to kill you, he tried to kill me, and I defended myself.” the female leaned forward as she sucked in a deep breath. “And I need your help. These guys are probably going to be in danger too because of me.”

Finnigan the Jackal unfolded his arms, taking out a stick of cigarette from the package before offering the depressant to the other jackals.

Cassidy drew out a stick from the pack, and the maned jackal placed the pack of cigarette back onto the table when it was made clear that there were no other smokers.

Lighting up the stick of tobacco, he sucked in a deep breath of smoke and slowly exhaled.

“... and he wants my head too, huh.” Finnigan pondered out loud enough for all the jackals to hear. He pulled out his black mobile phone. “I’ll have to make a call.”

And so the four jackals sat in silence as the Ultimate Mercenary scrolled through his phone and dialed a contact. He put his phone to the side of his head and waited for the call to connect.

“Vulpes.” He said as soon as the call connected. “I need your help.”

“Fire away, Finn.” came the smooth reply, and Finnigan felt a small surge of relief flow through his body.

“I might need Cyrus dead.”

“Cyrus the Panther?”

“Yeah.” 

“I thought you’d never ask. I’m free today; let’s meet up - You know where to find me.”

“I’ll call you back. See ya.”

The call ended.

As Finnigan put down his phone on the table next to the pack of cigarettes, he felt a smirk crawling its way onto his face. He then made eye contact with Cassidy.

The female removed the stick of cigarette from her mouth and exhaled, causing smoke to pour out along with her breath. “Something on my face?”

“You’re in luck.” he replied simply.

And so, the group of jackals got into the jackal trio’s black van with Cassidy behind the wheel in the right front seat.

With Finnigan’s directions, they drove to the secret meeting location that the maned jackal was quite familiar with - a small abandoned oil field hidden somewhere forgotten in the deserts of Mobius, which fitted the criteria for a secret place.

“All of you don’t look much older than me.” Finnigan commented after some silence along the road journey.

“That’s because we probably aren’t.” replied the red-hatted jackal, who rode shotgun. “I’m only nineteen. And my name’s Salvador.”

“That’s the same age as me.” Finnigan stated.

“No way…” came a reply from another voice. It was Jesse. “And you managed to become the Ultimate Mercenary?”

Finnigan shrugged. He didn’t feel like sharing what he has been through to get to this point. “What about you - how old are you?”

“Seventeen.” came the response. “The name’s Jesse. And no offense, but I thought you’d be, like, twenty something - at least.”

“He probably looks old from all the smoking he does!” joked the young thief, and Finnigan smirked.

“Is he your brother?” asked Salvador, referring to Clyde.

“Kinda. Well; Clyde here tried to steal from me, and I took him in.” the maned jackal replied, causing a smile to appear on Clyde’s face. “And he’s only sixteen.”

“Remind me to steal from you if I ever needed a place to stay.” the driver commented, making the rest of the jackals chuckle. “Anyway, we’re nearly there.”

It was already sometime after noon.

Moments after their conversation, Cassidy parked the van by the side of the lonely road. The jackals were greeted with the sight of an oil field, equipped with at least a dozen wells. It was abandoned, and it was apparent; for it looked forlorn and neglected with overgrown shrubs and sun-bleached structures.

The group was led to a cabin by Finnigan. Opening the door to one of the temporary office cabins, he was greeted with the sight of a familiar fox. Upon hearing the sound of door opening, the vulpine turned his head and stood up.

“Ah, Finn, I-” he suddenly stopped talking; noticing the figures behind the mercenary. “Friends of yours?”

“They’re with me.” Finnigan clarified, as the fox sat back down on his chair.

“Right. Take a seat.” He said simply, referring to the many black office chairs in the cabin. “I’m actually quite pleased that you’re looking to get rid of Cyrus; he has quite a bad history with me. But that aside, what happened that made you want to kill him?”

“Not me.” Finnigan replied, with slight humour with his eyes as he looked to the only female in the room.

“He wanted me to kill Finnigan, and I failed, and now he wants my head.” Cassidy repeated her story once more, and contemplated recording it down and playing it whenever someone asked the same question again.

“Sounds like him. He probably wanted Finnigan dead after he killed his first choice amongst mercenaries.” chuckled the reddish-brown fox. He made himself comfortable his seat.

“Anyway; here’s my story. I run a legitimate, honest tobacco company - providing almost certain cancer to the world-” A snort was heard from the youngest jackal. “-while Cyrus, as you mercenaries would probably know, deals major league in illegal cannabis-”

“Strange, Vulpes - you never told me about this.” Finnigan commented.

“Well, you never asked. And I never needed to.” he answered before continuing his speech. “The cat tried to frame his crimes onto me multiple times. Luckily, I have people I can count on - like Finnigan here - working with me to make sure that I don’t get labelled by the law as a drug courier-”

“Explains the hefty amounts of weed you wanted me to stash away.” the maned mercenary commented once more.

“I’m talking, Finnigan. And don’t complain; I know you sold those to whoever.” he informed in a deadpan, causing the jackal named to snort in amusement. “Anyway, jackal. Just to let you know; you smoke cigarettes from my company.”

Finnigan’s smile disappeared, and he took out his pack of cigarettes.

A symbol of a fox’s head against a star shape. ‘Foxhead Tobacco’.

“Huh.” The Ultimate Mercenary made a noise at the fresh piece of information while his brain made the connections, causing a certain young thief to snicker once more at his reaction.

“Sorry to interrupt your discussions with your loyal customer-” Salvador spoke up, leaning forward in his seat. “-but we really need to know how to take out Cyrus the Panther.”

“That wouldn’t be too difficult. He has quite a high profile.” Vulpes stood up and walked to a corner of the cabin where a desk sat with a laptop bag on it. The fox took out the laptop decorated with black metallic paint. “And I’m constantly tracking his actions - just in case he tries anything again.”

“Stalker.” Finnigan commented again with a smirk.

“Shut up, Finnigan.” the fox chided once more as he moved his index finger around on the touchpad. He was quite used to the jackal’s antics. “He has a main base of operations located in deep within Mystic Jungle, near the casinos.”

“Is there anything else we need to know?” asked Salvador.

“Not much; I’ll send Finn the details through text later. You can probably proceed with your plans now.” Vulpes suggested. “The cat’s probably busy sitting in his base, smoking cannabis while planning to get more of the stuff to sell.”

“You seem to know him quite a lot, Vulpes.” Finnigan teased once more. The fox stared at him, unamused.

“Anyway; knowing Cyrus the Panther - the longer you wait, the more mercenaries he would hire just to get rid of your jackal squad. You better get a move on.” The vulpine stated as he chased Finnigan out of the room.

And soon, the five jackals were outside the cabin, left to stare at oil wells scattered around, and the single parked van by the side of the road.

“Right.” Salvador broke the silence. “Shall we leave for Mystic Jungle?”

“I’ll drive.” Finnigan started to walk towards the vehicle, followed closely by Clyde. The rest of the jackals followed suit, as Cassidy passed the keys over to the new driver.

“‘Jackal Squad’ is a nice name, Finn.” commented the young thief as he got into the shotgun seat on the left side of the van.

“It has a nice ring to it-” came the response as the jackal started up the van. “-but you think they’d join us?”

“Totally - It’ll be cool!”

Finnigan stared at Clyde.

“Put your seatbelt on.”

 

-

 

It was late evening, and the sky began to turn dark.

Somewhere near a certain jungle in Mobius, an old, black van was currently being driven by Finnigan the Jackal on a lonely, winding road, with four other jackals sat as passengers. Along the way, the jackals made occasional conversation with each other as the journey was long and uneventful.

“We need some gas.” the driver stated after a brief check of the fuel gauge that revealed the fuel tank running low.

“Argh, bad timing.” Cassidy cursed, turning to her two friends. “We should have filled this thing up yesterday - there’s not a single gas station that we passed by!”

Jesse looked ready to retort, but it was stopped by Salvador’s sigh.

“No use saying that now.” reasoned the red-hatted jackal. “There might be a gas station nearby.”

“I’ll try to find us one.” Finnigan replied.

BANG!

The van suddenly jerked, and the passengers screamed at the sudden violent movement - Finnigan had swerved their vehicle instinctively as soon as he heard the gunshot.

A quick glance to the right - driver side - mirror revealed to the mercenary: an old, red sedan muscle car driving up the side of the van. The driving jackal changed to a lower gear and floored the gas, and the engine roared in response as it built up revolutions.

“Shit! They found us!” Cassidy cursed out loud, and the van suddenly swerved and jerked violently once more as their driver slammed their van into the other car, while both vehicles negotiated a right bend on the winding road.

Finnigan felt that the van still handled like before, meaning that the attempt at shooting out their tyres failed; lucky for the jackals.

“Sit tight everyone!” Salvador suggested loudly as he tried to keep himself steady.

BANG! - The front glass of both doors shattered as a shotgun bullet shot through. Fortunately, the bullet didn’t manage to cause harm.

“There’s a gun in my bag - use it!” shouted the Ultimate Mercenary, as he slammed their van into the offending car once more. The road had straightened, and it lead to a left bend.

Jesse wasted no time responding to Finnigan. Trying his best to maintain balance in the shaky van, he opened up the bag mentioned and was greeted with the sight of a revolver along with what seemed like huge amounts of mobium.

“Wow, you’re rich.” Jesse casually commented - offhandedly - as he checked the gun, while managing to keep his balance. “Only three bullets?”

“Gun’s not mine.” came the reply with gritted teeth as another harsh impact from the side shook the van.

“Damn it, just start shooting already, Jesse!” Cassidy shouted at the jackal holding the gun, ticked at the other’s lack of urgency.

Suddenly, the muscle car braked and fell back. Finnigan’s eyes followed, and he peered into the mirrors, revealing the dented muscle car attempting to ram them from the back once more.

Big mistake - With his quick reactions, Finnigan slammed his right foot onto the brake pedal. The tyres screeched as they locked up.

CRASH!

The van violently jerked forward, and the rear axle bounced from the momentum delivered by the impact as the back doors acquired a massive dent.

Engaging the clutch with his left foot, Finnigan put the van in second gear and accelerated, picking back up their lost speed.

“Cover your ears!” Jesse warned as he fired a bullet out the broken back window.

BANG!

“I got the gunner!” announced their shooter. And indeed, the gunfire from the other car stopped.

Speaking of things that stopped...

“Finn!?” Clyde panicked as he realised that the van was losing speed as the engine sputtered, causing the van to vibrate.

“We’re out of gas!” Finnigan hit the steering wheel in frustration.

“That hit must’ve broken the gas tank.” Salvador figured, as their driver hastily shifted the gear lever into the neutral position to keep the vehicle moving.

CRASH!

The jackals screamed, as the van was sent forwards forcefully again. The car had rammed them once more from the back.

BANG!

“Damn…” Jesse silently cursed. “One bullet left…!”

BANG!

Finnigan used whatever momentum the van had left to spin their vehicle. With his right hand, he spun the steering wheel as his other hand pulled the handbrake, converting the van into an effective roadblock.

“Brace yourselves!” the driving jackal instructed as the car approached. The other driver slammed their brakes, but there was not sufficient space to come to a stop.

CRASH! - The car plowed straight into the right side of the van as it failed to slow down in time.

The momentum sent into the van had put another dent in the bodywork, and both vehicles stopped completely. The machines were totalled.

As soon as the jackals bailed from their van, they saw the driver of the other car getting out of the vehicle. He had a bleeding cut on his face; most likely from the shattered windscreen of his car.

And he was a white-furred wolf.

A wolf.

At the sight of the other mobian, Finnigan’s mood turned considerably worse, as his face adopted a fierce scowl.

Before the other could even pull out the pistol to defend himself, Finnigan was already pushing his face into the ground. The jackal had weighed his body onto the wolf, as he grabbed a hold of his right arm.

“Who sent you?” He growled menacingly.

The wolf was obviously in distress, and he was terrified. He tried his best not to cry out in agony as his arm was painfully twisted to the point where it felt like being ripped out of its socket.

“Cy- Cyrus!” the wolf panted out as he fought the excruciating pain. “Please, don’t- ARGH! - kill me! I’m just a driver!”

The rest of the jackals stared at the scene. Cassidy was impassive, while the rest had a troubled look on their faces, especially Clyde.

“Finnigan.” Salvador spoke up with a surprisingly calm voice, causing the named jackal to look at him. “Let him go.”

“Let him go?” came the angered response. Was the other insane? Did he seriously just suggest letting the enemy free?

“Like he said, he’s just a driver-” Salvador tried again. “-getting paid to do work, just like us.”

Finnigan’s hold on the other’s arm slackened slightly. Salvador was right.

“... fine.” he growled as he completely loosened his grip, setting the other’s arms free. He stared straight into the face of the wolf, intimidating the other with his mismatched eyes. “But you must know where Cyrus is, don’t you?”

“Yes!” came the frantic response from the wolf as he was let up. “I’ll- I’ll bring you there!”

With the cars wrecked and unable to drive, they had no choice but to navigate their way to the base on foot.

The bleeding white wolf led the way all the while with Finnigan scrutinising the lupine with a watchful eye from behind. He didn’t trust the enemy.

But before he could continue his attempts to burn holes into flesh with his eyes, Clyde - who was walking next to him - had began to talk to him.

“You seem very interested in the guy.” Clyde commented quietly with a mischievous smile. It was obvious that he aimed to tease. “Is he really that attractive to you?”

Finnigan scoffed. “Don’t be stupid. I’d never be into wolves.”

“Ah, well.” came the reply. “So you might be into guys?”

“What?” his eyes widened and he heard soft snorts ahead of him. The thief - meanwhile - snickered at his reactions.

Unexpectedly, the Ultimate Mercenary smirked.

“Oh, don’t worry Clyde. I won’t steal from you.” he responded.

“What!?” It was the young thief’s turn to get embarrassed. “I’m-”

“We’re here…” The nervous wolf suddenly announced as they came to a stop in the jungle. He pointed in a direction. “It’s... right up ahead…”

“Finnigan, pass me five mobiums, will you?” Salvador requested.

The Ultimate Mercenary, surprisingly, complied - ignoring his bias against wolves - and handed over the five mobiums out of his own earnings. However, instead of passing it to the other jackal, he handed the money straight to the wolf, slapping it onto the other’s hand.

“Go home.” And the lupine ran, making his leave and disappeared from the jackal’s sight as he watched.

Turning around, Finnigan began to walk with the group in the direction of the base. And soon, the jackals hidden by foliage were greeted with the sight of a huge, intimidating, metal shutter gate, moderately guarded with a some men. Embedded into the side of the shutter gate was a door. It was open.

The warehouse itself looked to be built into the cliffside. A truck was currently being unloaded, and packs of goods were being moved by a few mobians. The packages probably contained the cannabis that Vulpes spoke of. There were also three parked cars that they could see.

“Clyde?” Finnigan called.

“Yeah?”

“I want you to stay here.”

The youngest jackal hesitated. “Okay…”

And the Ultimate Mercenary turned to face the rest of the jackals.

“Ready?”

All of them nodded.

“Let’s go.”

 

-

 

“Get them!”

It was a riot. As soon as the four jackals charged in - weapons at the ready - every single person in sight was on high alert. Pistols were fired towards them, but with the help of Jesse’s throwing knives, they were able to eliminate shooters from afar.

Meanwhile, the other jackals engaged in close-range combat with enemies, wrestling their guns away from their grip while they took their lives. They were continuously moving, and using corpses as shields to avoid being shot. So far, they had managed to take down a few enemies, but they were still fighting an unfair fight, as the opposition had the aid of ammunition.

And with them being experienced fighters, they had picked up the pistols dropped by defeated foes to even up the odds. The jackals currently took cover from countless gunfire behind a parked truck.

And after shooting out some more enemies, they were on the move again.

Nearby, hidden by the jungle and watching, the young jackal thief was feeling quite uneasy about seeing so much blood, and even more uneasy at the fact that they were actually killing people. Living, breathing creatures moments ago were now dead, lifeless corpses just by the pull of a finger.

But he still had to put up with it. This is his life now. He drew out his flamberge, and moved in to dive into battle with the rest.

“CLYDE!”

Salvador’s voice rang into his ears as he felt himself being shoved into the ground.

BANG!

The gunshot attracted his attention, and he was now greeted with the sight of a pistol aimed straight at his face.

But before the gun could be fired once more, a tomahawk suddenly appeared in his sight. He watched as the sharp blade sliced into the wrist of the gun-wielding arm. Blood dripped as the gun fell onto the ground. Soon after, the body collapsed too.

He felt sick.

It was silent now. Checking his surroundings, he noticed that the fight was over; the jackals had managed to take out the enemies that was stood guard outside of the warehouse. Bodies and blood were littered all around the clearing.

“C’mon.” Salvador offered him a hand to grab, and he did. As the young thief stood up, he saw the rest of the jackals making their way towards them.

“I thought I told you to stay. Why did you move?” Finnigan had traces of worry, anger and disappointment evident on his face.

But the one that stood out the most to Clyde was sadness.

“I… just wanted to help.” he mumbled, feeling guilty of the other’s state of mind.

Finnigan held his breath as he stared at the youngest jackal. Then, he sighed and closed his eyes temporarily before opening them back up.

“... let’s move.” said the maned jackal as he faced the direction of the warehouse, and began walking towards it. The other jackals did not follow immediately, while Cassidy’s trio made eye contact with one another, silently communicating vague messages as they started to follow some distance behind the leading jackal.

Finnigan opened the warehouse door fully, and he peeked into the warehouse. His ears perked as he heard a soft, unmistakable sound of a car’s starter. Somewhere, in this area, a car was getting ready to move. 

SCREECH! - A car had peeled out. The jackals tried to pinpoint the source of the sounds.

And just moments later, they were greeted with the sight of a black sedan smashing through the cannabis packages behind the truck in order to drive away from the warehouse, causing the contents of the parcels to burst into the air as the car’s tyres picked up dirt and threw the particles into the air.

Cyrus the Panther was getting away.

The jackals reacted immediately; Jesse was the first one breaking into the nearest car that didn’t have the tyres punctured by bullets - a dark blue, four door sedan - and started to work on prying open the dashboard covers below the steering wheel to get access to the wires needed to hotwire the vehicle.

“Sal, I need your tomahawk.” Jesse said, and he was immediately passed the weapon, allowing him to continue his work.

Meanwhile, Clyde had unlocked the sedan using the driver door panel controls so that they could get into the vehicle easily.

VROOM!

“Right, let’s move, Jesse.” Cassidy said as she got into the shotgun seat.

In response, Jesse grabbed the column shifter behind the wheel, put the automatic transmission into drive, and floored the gas. The car accelerated quickly, and soon they were following the dirt trails that the panther took. They could see faint clouds of dirt kicked up by tyres far ahead.

Finnigan looked at Jesse as he sent the car charging down the twisting dirt road with trees and other vegetations littered at the sides. The kid’s got skills, and he wondered where he got them from. Perhaps the other was a getaway driver.

With every single twist in the road, Jesse seemed to be able to take a shorter path than the other car, and they slowly caught up to the black sedan.

A sudden, sharp left bend presented to Jesse forced him to step on the brakes, slowing down the car in order to navigate the corner. Although the car was on loose dirt, he didn’t lock up the tyres at all while braking. With a pull of the handbrake, he put the car into a drift, and the tyres kicked up more dirt into the air as they slid through the corner. The technique performed by Jesse - that might have possibly put some rally drivers to shame - had caught them up to Cyrus.

The difference in momentum of the two cars coming out of the previous corner gave Jesse a chance to rapidly close in on the black sedan.

BONK!

The bumpers of the two vehicles touched as the chasing driver decided that a light tap would be sufficient for what he needed, and this simple action had caused a subtle change in Cyrus’s driving style - he became more erratic in his steering inputs, and the selection of the paths that the car would take became worse.

“Keep him alive.” Finnigan said to Cassidy, who was opening up a window in order to get potshots at the car ahead.

BANG!

The shot dug a bullet hole into the rear bumper of the car. Cassidy was attempting to shoot out the tyres.

Jesse’s brows furrowed as the movements of the car ahead became more difficult to predict. He won’t be able to stop the car ahead unless he could clearly see what the getaway car was trying to do.

“Not now, Cass!” Jesse informed, resulting in the female sitting back down in the vehicle as both cars slowed down once more in order to negotiate a slow right hand corner. He carefully observed the car ahead.

The black sedan turned left for a moment before the wheels turned right for the bend. Cyrus was attempting to use weight transfer to turn the car.

However, the panther timed his move slightly late, causing the initial left turn movement of the black sedan to take a wider path than intended. Jesse saw, and took the opportunity; turning the wheel right and flooring the gas as he positioned their car right next to the other car, causing the two cars to scrape right against one another they entered the bend.

Right when they began to turn, Jesse turned the wheel of the car a smaller amount than what was required to turn the bend, causing their car to push the other sedan outwards, away from the corner with the aid of centrifugal force acting upon them.

CRASH!

The black sedan had plowed straight into a tree as Jesse spun their car away completely and stopping to allow the group to get out of the vehicle.

“I’ll get him.” Finnigan said, as he quickly stepped out of the car and ran over to where the cat was before he could bail out of his car.

Delivering one hard, swift punch with his right fist aimed directly at the cat’s face, Finnigan knocked Cyrus unconscious. Moments later, the other jackals had joined the Ultimate Mercenary in staring at the limp body of the panther.

“Let’s get this cat back to Vulpes.”

And so began another long journey to a previous location.

“Oh - hello, Cyrus. Pleasure to see you.”

It was already late night. The group of jackals had contacted Vulpes the Fox several hours earlier about the results of their assault; and the vulpine was quite pleased with their answer and wanted to meet up immediately - with the target, of course.

“Thank you, ‘Jackal Squad’; and, as expected of the Ultimate Mercenary.” the fox smoothly spoke as he looked to the tied panther while he held up a cup. “Tea?”

The panther growled.

“A day is all it takes to take down the big, great Cyrus. Anyway.” Vulpes disregarded his responses. “I’ll discuss pay with you later, Finn. I’ve got to get this feline well accommodated.”

“With legal cigarettes?” Finnigan smirked.

“Something like that.” the vulpine replied with a chuckle. “Help me load him into my car, please.”

In response, the two jackals closest to the panther - Clyde and Jesse - carried the bound cat and followed the fox out of the room. Vulpes opened up the driver’s door of his white sedan and pulled the lever to open up the boot of the car, and the panther was put into the space with some resistance.

“Thank you, now I’ll be making my leave.” said the fox as he got into his car, started it, and drove off slowly.

“... ‘Jackal Squad’, huh…” Salvador softly repeated Vulpes’s previous words as he watched the white car drive off. Then, he looked to Cassidy. She nodded. Then, he looked to Jesse, who nodded too.

“Finnigan?” he called, causing the named jackal - who had just lighted up a cigarette - to turn his head and look at him.

“We would like to form a mercenary team with you and Clyde.” the red-hatted jackal proposed.

This had caused the Ultimate Mercenary to stare at the trio. Then, he took in a deep breath out of his stick of tobacco before deeping sighing out the smoke.

“... fine.” he replied. “But I don’t have a place to house all of you.”

“We have that covered.” Salvador stated. “The base in Mystic Jungle, remember?”

A sense of dread settled into the maned jackal.

“No way. No. I’m not going to travel such a far distance again today. We’re going to stay at an inn.”

The jackals laughed at the reaction as they watched Finnigan get into their stolen sedan and started it up.

 

-

 

It was snowing. Lights of different colours illuminated the street as owners decorated their establishments with Christmas themes for the occasion.

Two months had already passed since the kidnapping of Cyrus the Panther. And apparently, Vulpes the Fox had managed to get the authorities to throw the cat into prison for trafficking of contraband. How the vulpine did it: Finnigan had no idea, but it was probably a sly fox thing; he concluded in his head.

And they were paid, very handsomely; he might add. Vulpes the Fox was rich beyond imagination. The monopoly in the smoking market must have helped a lot; selling cancer to the general public of Mobius.

“Hey guys, look!” Clyde suddenly spoke up. “A public concert!”

And sure enough, the jackals began to hear the sounds of instruments being performed in the main square of City’s square: Sunset Heights.

‘Who named this place City…?’ the Ultimate Mercenary thought to himself as they made their way to the concert. What caught their attention is the presence of not only one, but two orchestras present in the square. And one was not like the other.

There was a banner hung on the notice board of the square:

‘Christmas Concert! City Music School Orchestra and Chun Nan Music School Orchestra!’

“What are those instruments, Finn?” asked Clyde, referring to the Chun Nan orchestra who were the current performers. “I’ve never seen them before!”

“I have no idea.” came the reply.

“They’re from Chun Nan.” replied Cassidy, who seemed to have knowledge in the subject. “Those instruments are native to that region of Mobius.”

“I see!” Clyde replied.

Loud applause and cheers commending their music began as the Chun Nan Orchestra finished performing their piece, as the next performers - the City Music School Orchestra - did their final tuning checks before they began to play.

The conductor of the orchestra walked onto the platform placed in front of the orchestra, and signalled the start of the piece.

And out came the most beautiful playing of piano that the jackals have ever heard. The audience were silent in the anticipation of an even more impressive performance as the other orchestral instruments slowly joined in playing the music.

Curious of the player of the piano - who was obviously way more skilled than the rest of the orchestra - Finnigan scanned his eyes for the figure sitting behind the grand piano. But, he couldn’t get a clear look, as the place was too crowded for him to see behind the piano which blocked his view of the performer.

However, he could clearly see red fur, and bespectacled eyes focusing on the score placed in front. The maned jackal had no idea what the red-furred mobian’s hands were doing, but they somehow were able to produce the best tones out of the grand piano.

The music grew louder, as the waving hands of the conductor was brought up gently, signalling the performers to a crescendo. The percussions finally joined in, and the piece was finally full.

They were playing a very grand version of a Christmas song that Finnigan remembers always hearing at this time of the year.

It reminded him of the times of when he was younger. When he’d celebrate Christmas with his parents:

“Finn!” his mother called him over, causing a certain young jackal to happily run over. “Look what daddy and I got you for Christmas!”

And the young jackal excitedly opened up the parcel, revealing to his mismatched eyes: A brand new pack of Lego bricks.

“Is this for me?” he excitedly confirmed, ready to play with them.

“Yes, my dear Finn.” replied his mother with a sweet, loving smile as young Finnigan decided to jump into her mother’s arms and give her a hug.

“Thank you, mom!”

Loud applause and cheering snapped him out of his memories. The performance was already over, and the performers stood up as the conductor bowed on behalf of the orchestra. Although they were stood up, Finnigan still could not catch a view of the pianist.

Oh well.

“Wasn’t that great?” Clyde asked to the jackals.

“Sure, Clyde.” Jesse responded. “Let’s go eat, I’m really hungry!”

“I heard there’s this restaurant nearby…” Salvador suggested. But Finnigan wasn’t listening.

He just dragged his feet as he followed the group.

How many years has it been? How many years passed since that day he began to live alone? How many years since the day he pushed himself to train, to work, to get better at this work so he could get stronger, so that he could provide for himself?

So that he would not sleep on the streets again?

Finnigan could not remember. He could not recall - It has been too long.

Sighing deeply, he looked once more at the four jackals walking ahead of him. They were making conversation, and the group laughed at some of Clyde’s antics.

A small smile tugged at his face. This was what he was given now. The closest thing he had to a family - the Jackal Squad. The second chance of a normal life; of kinship, of love.

And he vowed to protect each and every single one of the jackals with his life.


	3. Eggman's Alliance Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This arc of the story will expound on the formation of the alliance between Eggman and the Jackal Squad, and the Phantom Ruby's origins.

He learnt his lessons. All those years of constant trying, experimenting, and battling has led up to this moment. All his experience were going to be needed now. Him, Doctor Eggman, is going to take over the world.

And this time, it shall, and will succeed!

Because he had learnt his lessons, and instead of going about his plans and revealing everything to his enemies, he had kept a low profile all this while this time. And he was going to get busier; for he had already collected the Chaos Emeralds while Sonic and his friends thought that he was taking a little hiatus from his attempts to take over the world.

Well, that negligence towards his actions; or lack of, rather - was going to cost them dearly.

For now, he had six Chaos Emeralds. And it looks like it was going to stay that way until he attracted the attention of Shadow the Hedgehog. That black-furred GUN agent always kept the green Emerald on his person. And him, Doctor Eggman, was going to find a way to acquire that final emerald!

He has already spent quite a lot of time tracking down, collecting the emeralds, and making sure that his actions went unnoticed by anyone. The Chaos Emeralds had a nasty habit of reacting to one another under close proximity, and he had to find ways to regulate the chaos energy signals of each emerald before they could be safely kept in storage without attracting attention.

And he had done it. He had collected the Chaos Emeralds; save for the final one. He had to think about that one later. But for now, it was time to plan some schemes that would involve the use of the huge amounts of energy granted to him by the Emeralds.

With all the effort put in, his plan had to succeed this time. It had to.

Eggman typed something on the keyboard of his computer before drawing some designs on his tablet hooked to his very own mech-designing computer programme. He was using SAI too, but he wasn’t going to tell anyone he that didn’t pay for it.

“Orbot, make me coffee!” he suddenly ordered out loud, making his robot minion jump in surprise.

“Right away, boss!” the red robot left the room after the heavy metal doors slid open, following his maker’s orders.

Hey, have he ever created a robot that can directly manipulate and use Chaos energy? Maybe he could design a robot that can Chaos Control, or even attack like Shadow the Hedgehog’s signature moves - Chaos Spear and Chaos Blast! Or, even better; improved versions of those moves! Then, with those functions, he can finally defeat Sonic the Hedgehog’s resistance against him! Thanking his brilliant mind and creativity, the fat man excitedly typed in ideas into his computer.

“Your coffee, Doctor Eggman.” informed Orbot as he presented Eggman with a mug of his ordered beverage. Taking the mug by the handle, he drank a few sips.

Well, it is time to start designing!

 

-

 

It was already a few months after Eggman had collected the six Chaos Emeralds, and his secret laboratory was filled with posted up designs, concepts, and calculations that could have made his grandfather’s project research on Shadow go to shame.

And here he was, sat in this same chair for who knows how many hours, as he obsessively planned new robot concepts that could possibly take out Sonic the Hedgehog and all of his friends and allies that could possibly side with them; such as Team Dark, and the Chaotix.

And of course, the general public of Mobius who didn’t want to be ruled by a scientist obsessed with building an empire to worship himself.

The more he drew, the more memories and flashbacks of every attack, every defeat, and every humiliation was brought back into his mind. It was a good thing he was drawing on a tablet - a real pencil might have already snapped with how tightly he held the thing.

He didn’t even have the time to celebrate Christmas last year! And all those sitting down only using his brain probably made him gain even more weight. The thought made his mood turn sour.

“Doctor Eggman!” a frantic cry of his name from Orbot. “It’s an emergency!”

“Orbot!” the fat man responded with a cry. “Didn’t I tell you not to disturb me while I’m designing mechs?”

“The Chaos Emeralds have disappeared!”

“What!?” The effect was immediate. Eggman stood up instantly, nearly knocking over all the paper and even the computers from his workstation. “What do you mean they disappeared?”

“Like I said, Doctor Eggman,” Orbot repeated. “They really just disappeared without a trace!”

“I don’t believe it.” grumbled Eggman as he turned to face his computer once more. Typing into the keyboard and navigating the control panel, he brought up a feed of the security cameras installed in the base.

And he recovered the recorded footage of the room where he stored the Chaos Emeralds in, and played the video back:

It was the usual thing he saw; the Chaos Emeralds glowing dimly in their own colour, with the occasional spark of additional colour being spiked off from the emerald. And suddenly, a static had interrupted the video footage slightly, but he could still see what had happened.

The six Chaos Emeralds suddenly glowed a brilliant white, and blinded the camera with their white light. And then when the light dimmed, the emeralds disappeared along with it.

“Hmm…” Eggman pondered, lightly tapping the desk with his fingers as he came up with possible answers as of to what could have possibly happened. “Could it be… some form of Chaos Control?”

“But, Doctor-” Orbot interrupted his thoughts. “-Chaos Control under natural circumstances require all seven of the Chaos Emeralds.”

“I know, and the Emeralds spread themselves across Mobius again.” Eggman responded. “But then, they have never been kept like this before…”

“Boss!” Cubot interrupted as he joined the two. “There’s something strange that the base sensors are detecting! We’re surrounded by them!”

“I’ll teach them that Doctor Eggman can’t be taken down easily!” said the rotund man, as he furiously swiped at the screens and pulled out another live video footage of cameras monitoring the base’s exterior, and he was greeted with the sight of… the vast emptiness of the desert.

“You sure those sensors aren’t malfunctioning?” Eggman narrowed his eyes at the yellow robot.

“I’m sure of it! There are six energy signatures surrounding the base!” Cubot defended himself as he took out a tablet to show his maker the radar.

“Well I don’t see any-” the fat man suddenly stopped speaking, as a sudden twinkle in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. It came from the camera feeds. “-wait… What are those?”

As Eggman mumbled to himself, he zoomed in a camera to aim for a closer look at the unknown object. “They’re energy signatures, you say?”

“Yes boss!” replied Cubot.

“They could be the Chaos Emeralds. Let’s go take a look.”

And so, the red robot, the yellow robot, and the red-dressed fat man took a walk outside of their base, for the first time in a long time. But it seemed like the walk was a short one as they were immediately greeted with the sight of a purple gemstone, half buried into the ground.

Squatting down with some effort, Eggman picked up the gemstone with his gloved hands and stared down at the object.

“Well, it doesn’t look like a Chaos Emerald.” he commented before looking back up.

It was everything he could have ever dreamt about! Eggmanland: The big, beautiful theme park; full of statues of himself where living beings all over the world come to visit and worship him - the great Doctor Eggman!

His jaw dropped open in bewilderment, as he unconsciously let loose of the object that was in his palm in the shock. It had only been a millisecond of whatever fantasy world that the universe decided to bestow upon him - and he was already absolutely loving it.

And suddenly, it disappeared.

The shock had dissipated, and he admit that he felt disappointed that Eggmanland was gone. Was it a hallucination? Did he work too much on designing those robots that he had finally lost his sanity?

Another glint caught his eye for the second time that day.

Perhaps… it was that jewel?

Maybe it was the jewel, that was now on the floor again, appearing to be almost inviting the scientist to hold it once more.

Normally, he would feel excited about discovering a new material for his plans. But with this one - the strange unknown jewel - made him feel uneasy. Why? Was it because they appeared just as the Chaos Emeralds disappeared into thin air? And coincidentally; six of them, too?

A link clicked in the scientist’s brain.

‘No. It wasn’t a coincidence.’ thought Eggman, as he picked up the jewel for the second time. This time, no fantasies of his appeared before him.

“Orbot, Cubot.” called the fat man. “Collect the jewels, and analyse them in the lab. Cross check their energy signals with Chaos Emeralds data.”

“Right away!” replied the robot minions as they went to do exactly what their maker ordered.

A few hours after the gemstones were discovered and analysed, Eggman’s suspicions were confirmed to be true: The jewels did contain significant amounts of Chaos Energy and had traces of material similar to Chaos Emeralds.

“Right.” Doctor Eggman suddenly spoke up after reading and going through the results of the analysis in his head. “I have come to the conclusion that these six jewels are the Chaos Emeralds.”

“That’s excellent, Doctor Eggman.” responded Orbot. “Then perhaps you can now continue with your plans!”

“Not quite.” the scientist grumbled, slightly annoyed for some reasons. “Although they contain Chaos Energy, the energy signatures produced are vastly different from the original Emeralds.”

“Then maybe they are another form of the Emeralds?” Cubot chimed in his two cents.

“Excellent conclusion, Cubot!” Eggman exclaimed. “Perhaps you’re not such an idiot, after all.”

“I want to call them ‘Spooky Sapphire’!”

“I take back my words; they’re not even blue, you stupid robot!” Eggman snapped, before calming down once more. “Anyway, with my great mind, I’ve already come up with a brilliant name - that none of you dimwits could ever come up with.”

“It shall be named: the ‘Phantom Ruby’!”

And it is also time to find out exactly how this newly named Phantom Ruby caused that illusion.

-

 

Alarms blared throughout the whole base suddenly, and Eggman rushed into his Egg-Mobile and started the machine up in order to hasten his journey outside of the base to investigate. The engines powered up and the vehicle started to float, as the thrusters burst out flames. 

Who dared to attack him - Doctor Eggman?

Could it be Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends? He had kept a low profile all this time! And usually, if he didn’t attack, they didn’t fight back. Such are the actions of a hero that don’t start conflicts - what pacifists!

So, if it wasn’t Sonic and his friends, then who - or what - might the invaders be?

A few minutes earlier in his laboratory, he was still analysing the new batch of results that the damned Phantom Ruby produced. Not one data matched with another in the two days of constant testing.

Whatever the Phantom Ruby was, it was incredibly unstable as an energy source; it turned out.

And right after the conclusion was made, the alarms began to rang. In his haste to respond, he didn’t have time to properly store the ruby back into place and instead shoved it into one of his pockets.

“How dare they attack me!” he exclaimed in anger as he approached the entrance of the base. “And I wasted all my precious time on that glorified stone instead of building my new batch of Egg Pawns!”

Ah, no matter. He had enough weapons on his Egg-Mobile to take out most enemies anyway.

In this instant, a strange phenomenon - never seen before by the scientist occured before him. Hundreds of robots with Egg-shaped designs and simple weaponry appeared out of nowhere and seemed to take form before his very eyes.

Was it the Phantom Ruby? With some confusion, Doctor Eggman took out the jewel once more from his pocket. It glowed a menacing purplish-red.

A grin spread across the fat man’s mustached face - It really was the Phantom Ruby’s doings.

“Right then…” he worked himself up to shout out his infamous line. “Robots, ATTACK!”

And they responded, breaking through the main entrance, revealing the bright light from the afternoon sun, and five armed jackals wreaking havoc to the guard robots stood outside their base.

Oh, they’ll learn about thinking twice before attacking the brilliant Doctor Eggman!

In the other side of the fight, Finnigan the Jackal cut down robots like they were paper with his sharp, red, scimitar blade; making the defeated robots spark, or cause a small explosion in the process.

“I’ll handle Eggman!” he informed his squad loudly as he charged through more mechanical foes, swiftly approaching the fat man on the vehicle who maniacally shouted orders to his creations.

“Okay, boss!” came the reply from the young thief - Clyde the Jackal. He had improved in his craft, and now he wielded his flamberge like a skilled swordsman - cutting through the steel hull of the robots like it was nothing.

The Jackal Squad members had improved under the guidance and leadership of the Ultimate Mercenary, as expected. The simple robots of the scientist stood no chance against them.

The hundreds of robots that were once standing as obstacles to Eggman slowly reduced to none.

“Damn!” Eggman cursed as he cast a furious look to the Phantom Ruby held firmly in his right hand. “I need more robots; much more! Thousands of them!”

And like a wish being granted by a genie; his desires turned into reality, and a huge new army batch of robots appeared around him, ready to attack.

The jackals were surprised by the sudden turn of events. Robots suddenly took form right in front of their very eyes. What happened?

Were the robots camouflaged before? If so, raiding Eggman was even better than they thought - these advanced technologies would surely bring in a bigger profit than they originally expected. But then, it meant more danger than they thought.

The new perceived information presented to the jackals put them on higher alert as they fought back harder in the effort to counteract the new wave of Egg Pawns.

However, despite their increased efforts, it had seemed hopeless with the enormous swarm of robots around them. The jackals could not dish back attacks quick enough to counter the countless attacks from their enemies.

“I’ve got you, fat man!”

Finnigan had managed to sneak around the evil genius, and he stood atop of the Egg-Mobile. His red scimitar threatened to slice open the scientist’s throat.

“Call off your robots.” ordered the Ultimate Mercenary menacingly as he positioned his blade even closer to the scientist’s throat.

Eggman completely froze in the seat of his Egg-Mobile.

“Robots!” called the scientist, as he worried about the sharp object at his neck accidentally cutting him as he spoke. “Stop the attack!”

And they did. The jackals that were once fighting stood in confusion as their enemies stopped moving.

The glinting, shining gemstone held in the scientist’s palm caught Finnigan’s attention.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“It’s uh...” Eggman panicked as he laughed nervously. “It’s nothing of value, don’t worry about it.”

“Hand it over.”

Unable to refuse with the blade practically touching his throat, Eggman reluctantly handed over the Phantom Ruby, offering the other to hold it while he held it in his open palm.

The other grabbed.

And he noticed his surroundings change out of the corner of his eyes:

It was not a pretty sight. Finnigan saw a vast, dystopian desert, filled with damaged buildings and cracked grounds, and he immediately gasped in shock, unconsciously letting loose of the Phantom Ruby.

Bizarrely, although the sight was bleak; the Ultimate Mercenary felt strangely captivated to the destructions of the land. He had no idea why.

And because both individuals were in contact with the gemstone at the same time, Eggman saw the visions too.

While the jackal was distracted, Eggman grinned evilly at the window of opportunity presented to him. With his other arm, he violently shoved the jackal. Finnigan lost his balance, and he found himself falling off of the floating vehicle - the vision was now gone.

“Get them, Robots!”

In an instant, the Egg Pawns surrounded the jackals, and their firearms were ready to shoot through each and every single member of the Jackal Squad.

‘Damn it!’ thought Finnigan angrily. He had lost his focus, and now they were held at gunpoint by the enemy - they had zero chance of fighting back in this position.

The evil genius laughed at the jackals being held at gunpoint by his very own creations, and also at the visions he shared with the jackal that had came into contact with the Phantom Ruby held in his palm.

“I saw what you saw, jackal.” Eggman stated. “A dreadful place indeed; and somehow, it is the thing you desire the most.”

The maned jackal stared at the scientist. That harsh, bleak place was what he desired? The most? It didn’t make any sense - it wasn’t like he woke up everyday wishing for the world to burn down to the ground.

“But anyway-” Eggman continued speaking. “-since your friends and yourself are now captured by myself; I’ll give you two choices-”

Finnigan the Jackal fumed at his humiliating, stupid, careless loss.

“-work for me, or risk getting shot by one of my robots while trying to escape.” the evil genius listed. “So, which one would it be, jackal?”

And the jackal glanced at his friends.

“Don’t be threatened by him, boss!” Clyde shouted. “We can get out of this!”

Could they really? Finnigan simulated multiple situations in his head; but they were all hopeless. No, they could not. One move, and bullets would be fired out of those robots into their heads. The Ultimate Mercenary had no other choice.

He didn’t want to, but he had to do it.

“Fine.” Finnigan growled. “I’ll accept your proposal.”

“Excellent! Welcome to Team Eggman!”

 

-


	4. Birth of Infinite Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story arc will expound on how Infinite came to be known as Infinite.

The leader of the Jackal Squad was in deep thought. Sitting in the remodeled warehouse with a lit cigarette, he inhaled a deep breath from the stick of tobacco.

Because he was so confused. Confused about what he saw a day ago - which Doctor Eggman had said that it was his biggest desire: That horrible sight, that bleak place where no one should ever be.

That place that he was once trapped in; without love, without hope. A place where nobody helped him. A place where people glared, and spat at the poor, dirty jackal that slept on the streets at the age of fourteen. A place where he took his first life. A place where he shot his first bullet.

A place of endless suffering and agony.

Anger flared within him as he exhaled the smoke from his lungs. How dare that fat scientist claim that - that place, that sight, that smell, was his biggest desire? Finnigan never wanted to go back there ever again, not if he could help it. Not in this life. Not in the next.

Never.

“Ah, Finnigan. I was looking for you.” It was Salvador.

The jackals were currently back in their claimed base hidden deep within the Mystic Jungle. A few Eggman robots were currently somewhere in the base, transforming their lair into another installation of the Eggman Empire

Without a doubt, the Jackal Squad wasn’t so happy about the developments.

“What is it, Sal?” Finnigan acknowledged, as he continued to smoke, which caused the other jackal to frown.

“I was wondering-” Salvador began as he sat down onto the couch next to the leader. “-if you have plans to get out of this predicament we’re in.”

“I have no idea.” Finnigan grumbled. “If we turn rogue, we’re dead.”

Salvador stared at the other. It was obvious that the Ultimate Mercenary was feeling incredibly stressed, and on edge.

If the maned jackal knew what the other jackal was thinking; he would have confirmed it, too. The depressants he was smoking did little to help his mental state. For the second time in his life, he was stuck without choice.

The safety of his friends - his current family - meant more to Finnigan currently than anything else. And for their safety, it meant working for the evil genius; Doctor Eggman.

He sighed and stood up. “Don’t we have some place to be?”

“The others are waiting outside.” replied Salvador and led the leader out of the warehouse, and they were presented to the sight of their dark blue sedan.

They had decided to keep the stolen vehicle, and they patched up the scratches in the bodywork a month before. With Jesse behind the wheel, the five jackals prepared to make their way to where Cassidy’s original trio hid out before the Jackal Squad was formed.

Where this whole thing started. Where this whole thing began.

“I might have an idea running from the fat man.” Cassidy said as the car moved on the roads, causing the jackals to pay attention to what she spoke of. “We could find Sonic the Hedgehog. He’s his biggest enemy, remember?”

“It won’t work.” Salvador responded. “Eggman keeps his tabs on each and every one of us. I have no idea how he does it, but our actions are constantly being monitored.”

Cassidy sighed.

The rest journey to Metropolis was filled with silence. Nobody talked, and all the members of the Jackal Squad could feel the frustrations radiating off of Finnigan regarding their current situation.

Eventually, their car reached the neglected areas of Metropolis some distance away from the Capital City, and drove into one of the garages painted with a little red infinity symbol on the entrance.

“So, this is where we’ll stay now, huh.” Clyde commented as he stepped out of the sedan.

“Until we find a way to get out of Eggman’s clutches.” Finnigan replied.

“I’m sure we can, Finn.” Clyde said, smiling at him optimistically.

Seeing the youngest jackal’s face made Finnigan’s worries go away, even just a little. Since the day they met, Clyde had been nothing but a little ball of sunshine at his side.

Clyde was the sunshine needed to add light and colour into his world.

“I’ll make sure of it.”

He’d be damned if he would let anything bad happen to the Jackal Squad.

 

-

 

“You were looking for me?”

“Yes jackal, I was.” replied Eggman in the reasonably lit laboratory as he stood up from his current workstation. “Finnigan, was it?”

He grunted an acknowledgement.

“I believe you’re familiar with this piece of jewel?” the evil genius gestured to the Phantom Ruby kept in a glass case, with sensors connected to analyse the still-mysterious object. It was the only brightest lit object in the room.

To the jackal, the gemstone seemed evil. It seemed like it would want to destroy and control everything when it got let loose. It almost felt like when he saw that vision of that dystopia.

“What did that mean?”

Eggman looked over to the jackal who asked the question and grinned. He understood what the other was referring to.

“Not much, jackal. It is probably what you desire the most.” the scientist stated. “You see; for me, I saw a beautiful place I’ve always dreamed of building: Eggmanland…!”

“There is no possible way that I would desire that!” Finnigan snapped, fury evident in his posture and voice.

“Are you really sure about that, jackal?”

“What?” the Ultimate Mercenary responded, taken aback by the question of the fat man as his eyes widened. “Of course I’m sure; I have suffered enough!”

Eggman stared at him for a moment.

“Have you ever wanted to end the world?” inquired the scientist. “To end the world, along with the suffering - or something along those lines?”

Finnigan stared back in recognition of the other’s words. The last time he had that thought was a very, very long time ago - Before he became the Ultimate Mercenary. Before he met Vulpes. Before he met Clyde. Before he met Cassidy, Jesse, and Salvador. Before the Jackal Squad became his family.

“That was a very long time ago, doctor.” the maned jackal replied with solemn as he looked away. “I no longer desire those kind of notions.”

“Believe what you want, jackal.” Eggman almost huffed. “But I already know what I need to know.”

Finnigan reached back into his backpack, and took out a pack of cigarettes.

“No smoking in my lab, jackal. You might make something explode.”

Sighing in frustration, he kept the depressants back into the bag. “What is it that you called me here for, Eggman?”

“I’ll be leaving Mobius for a while.” replied the human. “I’ll be rebuilding my space station - the Death Egg - in orbit around the planet.”

“So?”

“So, I will need of the Jackal Squad’s services to stand guard at the Mystic Jungle base as decoy.” Eggman replied, sharing his plans with the other. “So far, I don’t think anyone knows of my desert base in Sand Hill except me and your squad.”

A thought made its way to the scientist’s head as he realised some implications.

“Speaking of which; how did you discover this base?”

“I was attacked by one of your robots.” came the reply.

“Ah.” Eggman made a noise. Then, he grumbled. “The robots were not supposed to leave the proximity of the base - I’ll have to reprogramme them.”

“How long will you be gone?” asked Finnigan.

“Four weeks at most - I’m an expert at building things in a short time.” Eggman replied. “But don’t think you can leave your post while I’m away, jackal. I have you on tabs.”

The Ultimate Mercenary's eyebrows furrowed. He disliked this human quite a lot.

“So we’re just guarding an empty base?”

“Your squad will.” Eggman replied as he handed over communicators to the jackal. “Keep in contact. You shall observe the Phantom Ruby and stand guard in this base, since you have a similar experience with it as I did.”

Finnigan had a bad feeling about this.

And that was the conversation that happened between him and Eggman a week ago.

As it turned out, his suspicions were true. Currently, he was racing his way to the Mystic Jungle base in a car he stole from a civilian - a black sports coupe. The distance between Sand Hill and Mystic Jungle wasn’t great; and hopefully, he could make it in time.

It was night, and he idled around in the room with the Phantom Ruby when all of a sudden, Eggman started to shout into the communicators, and babbled something about a dangerous enemy and wanted him to fight along with the Jackal Squad.

“Shadow the Hedgehog is closing in the vicinity!” came the voice from the wrist communicator. It was Eggman. “Hurry up and get there!”

“I’m on my way!”

With urgency and desperation, Finnigan floored the gas harder, even though the pedal already touched the floor, as he unconsciously gripped the steering wheel tighter.

“We’ll handle him, boss!” came another voice. It was Clyde.

“He’s an enemy tough beyond imagination, jackal!” Eggman shouted out again in the communication channel. “Do not underestimate him!”

Using moves that he learnt from Jesse, Finnigan sent the car charging down the roads that led to the base of the Mystic Jungle. He had already reached the end of the casinos - which turned out to be built by Eggman himself - where he had a choice of two routes: One way more riskier to take than the other, but also way shorter.

“... fuck it.” Finnigan growled as he sent the car charging down Aqua Road. And as the name might suggest; the routes were halfpipes filled with water meant for canoes.

The four wheels of the car immediately splashed up water the moment they came into contact with the waterslide. The vehicle became practically uncontrollable as Finnigan attempted to wrestle with the steering wheel to keep the car stable as it was forced to follow the direction of the twists and turns of the halfpipes like a rollercoaster ride.

“He’s very close to your locations, jackals!” Eggman’s voice warned.

A view of a harsh turn was presented to the jackal, and Finnigan’s eyes widened. But it didn’t stop him from reacting, as he opened the driver’s door and bailed out of the car. He immediately felt his fur getting wet from the water, as he watched the car run up the side of the halfpipe, and sink into the sea surrounding the jungle.

“He’s here, Finn! We-” a cry was heard from Cassidy, but her voice was cut short by a scream of her own. She was attacked.

Upon hearing Cassidy interrupted message, Finnigan’s heart sank, as he attempted to make his way over even faster. 

He never felt more desperate in his life.

“Jackal Squad?” Eggman called out. “Jackal Squad, respond!”

No reply came.

“Well look, ‘Ultimate Mercenary’!” the fat man bellowed, and the volume of the shout distorted the audio transmitted. “Your squad was useless! Go take down Shadow the Hedgehog, NOW!”

“I get it!” the jackal gritted out.

Finnigan the Jackal could not think straight, for currently, there was a lot of information for him to take in, to process, and he was feeling both physically and mentally drained. Not only that, he had a load of questions to ask.

What had happened to his squad? Did they get… killed?

Hopping between pillars to get to their base entrance, Finnigan had finally arrived, and he saw a black hedgehog with red stripes. It must be Shadow the Hedgehog.

Sprinting over, the jackal was ready to attack; and he swung his fist at the enemy. But before the hit could land, the hedgehog noticed him, and instantly disappeared in a flash of blue light.

What was that? In confusion, he frantically turned and scanned the surroundings with his eyes, but the hedgehog was nowhere to be seen.

And all of a sudden, he felt pain - agonising pain on his chest, as he felt his feet leave the ground and himself flying through the air. More hits came, adding more torment to his already aching body. He didn’t know what was happening. He was confused. He was desperate. He was terrified.

He couldn’t scream anymore from the pain he was delivered. He couldn’t think anymore.

Who exactly was Shadow the Hedgehog?

He felt a sharp pain on his back as he landed hard on a solid object. Shortly after, he felt himself finally landing on the ground. Finnigan cried out in agony as he tried to move, but he couldn’t. He could see blood bleeding from cuts on his own body. It stung.

“Hmph. Eggman’s henchmen…” a voice growled out. He could only assume the hedgehog was speaking. “... pathetic.”

A movement was heard, and the jackal opened his eyes slowly, finding his vision blurred, and no hedgehog in sight. He felt his whole body shaking from the pain, along with the shock, and fear experienced just now.

What was that teleporting? Was it real? Was he dreaming? He had never encountered anything like it. And the hits the hedgehog landed - they were probably two, or three times harder than anything he had ever experienced…

His squad! 

He had to make sure they were okay.

Finnigan pressed the button to start the transmission of his voice, but the wrist communicator didn’t light up; it broke when he received all those damage. Willing himself, he groaned as he stood up shakily and limped his way to the area where he knew his squad would be.

It had took him the longest, most excruciating five minutes in his life to get there, and the sight was something he never wanted to see:

In the midsts of the jungle littered with trees, he saw four jackals laid on the grassy ground. Their bodies bled.

No... It couldn’t be...

“Clyde?” he called out with a shaky voice, as he kneeled on the ground, shaking the young thief’s unmoving body. “Clyde!”

There was no response. No jokes. No smile. Nothing.

“Cassidy!”, “Jesse!”, “Salvador!”

He desperately tried to feel for pulses with his shaking, trembling hands, but he could not feel anything. And so, he shook their bodies, hoping, wishing that they would open their eyes and awaken.

“Please wake up!”

They didn’t wake up.

Clyde. Jesse. Cassidy. Salvador.

They were gone.

It was like a violent stab to his heart by a sharp, invisible blade. Only this blade was worse; this blade twisted his insides, his heart, and his guts. It tore him apart from the inside.

They were gone. The Jackal Squad. His friends. His family.

And the lone jackal laughed. It was maniacal. It was mournful. It was the laughter of someone who had lost their mind and their sanity. Tears flowed freely from his mismatched eyes, down his face like an open tap, as he curled up on the ground right next to their bodies.

He screamed out loud, and his voice echoed in the night.

To think that he deserved a family. What a joke - He couldn’t even protect them. He had failed in such a simple task.

And they paid the price. Instead of him.

He thought that his suffering was finally over; but after all this time, it came back for more. Suffering came back to him like an old friend, and enveloped Finnigan the Jackal inside it’s cold, icy arms, and wrapped itself tight against him.

His happiness was gone. Everything he knew had come, and gone. Suffering had never ended. It had never went away. It was only waiting for its opportunity to take it all away.

He so desperately wished this to be a horrible nightmare that he could wake up from.

“Jackals?” it was the scientist. “Any one of you still alive?”

Finnigan stared hard into the device with his teary eyes as made a choice. He reached for the lit up communicator wrapped around Salvador’s wrist.

“... Doctor.” he swallowed, as he tried to compose himself from his constricted throat preventing him from speaking clearly. “... You were right…”

“... about what?”

“I wish to destroy this world.”

Because there was no reason left to carry on.

The world had turned its back against him once more, and he will not stop until the entire world ceased to exist.

It was time to start this war.

 

-

 

“The Phantom Ruby activates under strong desires.” Eggman explained to the jackal in the room. “The greater your desire, the more the Ruby can work for you - In theory, the power it grants is limitless.”

It has been two days after that incident. And during that time, Finnigan the Jackal had smoked way more sticks of cigarettes than he ever did in his life; going through a pack a day, for they were all he had to help his current mental state. 

Doctor Eggman had returned from space a day ago, rushing back after hearing the jackal’s wish to devastate the world. What an opportunity presented to him! Of course, he couldn’t refuse, and quickly finished up the developments of the Death Egg before returning to Mobius.

“But there’s only one Ruby strong enough to take in all of those desires, and that is the one that both you and I have successfully activated.” continued the scientist. “I have no idea why yet, but the other Rubies don’t seem to translate desires as efficiently. I will have to keep them somewhere for analysis.”

“What’s with the mask you made, doctor?” asked Finnigan, referring to an object laying on top of Eggman’s workstation. “It doesn’t seem to be designed for your face.”

“Indeed, it is not intended for me to wear. You will be wearing it.” Eggman stated. “And it is not just a mask, jackal. It is a Ruby Perception Manipulator.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning - that you can choose to be affected by the things you create with the Phantom Ruby, or not.”

The jackal’s mismatched eyes focused on the mask lying on the workstation.

“Don’t just stare at it; put it on.” ordered the evil genius. “Let’s take it on a test run, shall we?”

And so he did. Finnigan put the mask on, and it had fit perfectly; covering up his entire head while also letting his mane flow freely down the centre of his head. The scientist must have designed this with his jackal head in mind.

“Follow me.”

Doctor Eggman led Finnigan to another location in his base. It was a big, empty room, lit with bright hanging lights and decorated - not really - with complete white walls and flooring.

“Go on. Try thinking of something, and then wish for it to appear.”

With the Phantom Ruby held in his palm firmly, Finnigan thought of the very first thing that came into his head:

The Jackal Squad emblem. He wanted to see it again.

And right before their very eyes, a concrete structure began to take shape in front of them: An infinity symbol in red, that the Jackal Squad had used; the emblem that was of his squad.

“What’s this supposed to mean?” asked Eggman, confused at the other’s creation.

“It… was the symbol of my squad.” replied the jackal.

He recalled the time when Cassidy designed it; for the simple reason that they wished for the Jackal Squad to be the very best mercenary team. To have infinite potential. To have immeasurable bond, and countless memories with each and every member of the team.

“Well, try something else. Something that would cause a reaction to the real world.” Eggman ordered. “Perhaps a missile launcher?”

With the concept of a missile launcher in his mind, Finnigan closed his eyes and focused on the imagery and idea of the artillery. Opening his eyes, he found the missile launcher took form in front of himself, aimed at the wall at the opposite site of the room.

“Fire it.”

BAM!

And a rocket explosive was launched out of the cannon. It travelled fast, and the projectile soon came into contact with the other end of the room.

BOOM!

A loud explosion was heard, seen and felt by both of the characters. The missile wasn’t fake. Even though it was conjured, it had indeed affected the real world.

Doctor Eggman stared at the ruined wall while some of his robots rushed into the room with fire extinguishers and started their efforts to put out the fire.

“Excellent. We’ll have to work on your control and reality perception next time.” the scientist concluded. “Meanwhile, I’ll find a way to attach that Ruby to you somehow so you wouldn’t have to carry it around.”

Suddenly, Finnigan felt an instant flash of sharp, stinging pain on his chest. In a natural instinctive response, he moved his hands to clutch at his chest - only to find that he was not touching either fur, or flesh, but a material that wasn’t there before.

The Phantom Ruby. It had embedded itself into him.

“... Did you do that?” Eggman inquired.

“I might have had an idea flash in my head as you suggested a way to attach the Ruby to me.” replied the jackal honestly as he looked down at the gemstone now attached to himself. “It must have sensed it.”

“Well, that solves one problem already.” Eggman commented, as he turned to leave the room. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.”

Finnigan stared at the leaving human.

“Before you go, doctor.” he spoke. “I have one simple request.”

“What is it?”

“From now on, refer to me as Infinite.”

Doctor Eggman didn’t ask for any reasons. With a grunt, he acknowledged the jackal’s appeal, and left the room to further develop on his plans and research.

The lone being in the room stared at the red infinity symbol that he conjured up just minutes prior. The symbol of the Jackal Squad. However, it wasn’t just a logo for him. To the maned jackal - it was a word of significant meaning, as it had perfectly signified parts of his life: The suffering. The pain. The misery.

They had no end. And so shall his efforts of turning the world into ash. For this reason, he would become the unstoppable force that had will not stop. He would become:

Infinite.

 

-

 

After the Phantom Ruby fused itself to his body, Infinite had been having weird dreams; or were they hallucinations?

Currently, Infinite and Doctor Eggman were both located inside of the evil genius’s secret base hidden somewhere within the vast deserts of Mobius; in Sand Hill. They were inside a moderately lit room with six, large stasis chambers. The brighter lights from monitor screens illuminated parts the room further.

Five of the mentioned stasis chambers were, at present; being used to analyse the Phantom Rubies - which were all hooked up to wires and being constantly monitored by Eggman’s systems. 

Anyway - back to Infinite’s visions - he saw things. A monster or something, that he hadn’t even thought possible to imagine before - A mysterious, blue creature that seemed to be formed out of liquid. It had lime-green eyes, and a brain visible through its transparent, blue liquid skin.

What was it?

“Now, Infinite-” Eggman said as he finished typing into the computer. “-how do you feel?”

“Slightly exhausted.” came the reply. However, his eyes widened, in the realisation that his voice wasn’t his own.

Doctor Eggman, after hearing him talk, had completely turned his full attention onto the mobian possessing the Phantom Ruby.

“... doctor?” Infinite whispered with his altered voice, slightly afraid of the unknown. “... what’s going on?”

“It could be a side-effect of the usage of the Phantom Ruby.” pondered Eggman as he stared at the gemstone stuck to the other’s chest. “You accepted to be its host, after all.”

“I… did?”

“It is no ordinary power source, to my knowledge.” Eggman stated. “This is the first power source I’ve encountered that is able to turn thoughts into reality, without the user actually needing to control it.”

“Wait, doctor.” Infinite stopped him. “Are you telling me now you had no prior knowledge of this material?”

“None at all.” came the honest reply.

“Then-”

“But; I know for a fact that there will be a failsafe mechanism - the Master Emerald - for if we ever needed it.” Eggman interrupted. “These Rubies weren’t always Rubies, after all - they used to be Chaos Emeralds.”

Chaos Emerald? Infinite indeed had heard of those before in his life, and had some knowledge to their abilities and power; but he has never came across one before.

“... then perhaps I should tell you about my experiences so far.” Infinite spoke up.

The scientist had just stared straight at the other with great attention - interested in what he had to share.

And so, the next three minutes were spent with the Phantom Ruby’s host telling the evil genius all about his visions; about that blue, liquid monster.

The creature that seemed to be trying to communicate to him.

Doctor Eggman had just stared off in a random direction for a moment, before turning to face his computer once more. Walking to it, he swiped his finger around on the control panel, and typed in something onto the keyboard. He had pulled out a picture on the big screen, of the Spirit of the Master Emerald: Chaos.

“Is this the one you saw?” asked the scientist.

Infinite nodded in response.

“The visions you had were of the Master Emerald’s God: Chaos.” confirmed the evil genius as he turned the image off from the computer screen.

“Hmm…” Eggman made a noise as he faced the jackal once more, looking at his masked face in deep thought. “The Phantom Ruby might be tapping into your nervous systems. That’s probably the reason why it can read your mind much more efficiently now; and also might be the reason of your voice change.”

“... that’s fine.” replied Infinite, solemnly. “I don’t plan to live on after I finish my work, anyway.”

The scientist’s brows furrowed slightly at the other’s answer.

“Anyway, just to be safe-” Eggman began typing into his computer once more, and a stasis chamber opened up. “I’ll analyse the effects of the Ruby on your nervous systems and parts of your brain. Step into the chamber.”

The jackal obeyed.

“It’s going to sting quite a bit.” wires started to descent from the ceiling within the chamber, and Doctor Eggman begun to patch him up to the computers. Needles were injected into his body in order to collect data of the jackal’s systems.

Eggman didn’t lie - It did sting. A lot.

However...

To truly become Infinite in the little time before he ended the world, he had to endure this.

Because - right now - the Phantom Ruby was all he had. And with its powers, Infinite was going to show the world what it meant to be born in pain.

This bit of pain he was currently experiencing meant nothing compared to what he had been through.

He would show them - all of Mobius - what it was all about.


	5. The Fall of the Hero Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story arc will expound on Silver the Hedgehog, Team Chaotix, and Knuckles the Echidna's involvement in the formation of the Resistance. It will also expound on the fight between Eggman and Sonic the Hedgehog.

He cannot believe it.

Silver the Hedgehog had just travelled back to his own time. And guess what he saw?

Eggmanland.

Yes. Eggmanland - Doctor Eggman’s greatest wish of a creation - had come true right before his very eyes. The entirety of Mobius was just a vast landscape of this theme-park Eggman city - from what he could see - built in the name of the deceased scientist.

Well, dead in his time, anyway.

And even though he died, his creations - robots, structures, weird buildings and giant statues of himself - still worked to this day, being powered by a seemingly unlimited - and unknown - power source from who-knows-where. There were robots which still controlled the mobians living in the main cities.

Who shall he visit to fix this again?

Oh right. Sonic the Hedgehog.

Although he was good friends with the blue hedgehog, he can’t help but be frustrated at the other sometimes, due to Sonic’s actions impact on the future, and with him just returning from the time-eater incident after having not much sleep - he was incredibly jumpy.

It was obvious, really - his world was directly affected by the other’s time events.

Actually - he briefly wondered - did Sonic really lose to Eggman? Did Eggman finally win, this time?

The white hedgehog sighed. He hadn’t even been back for a full minute before he had the need to travel through the fabric of time once more.

Honestly, he didn’t feel like going time-travelling again; he was quite tired.

However, it was his mission; and therefore, it was time to make his way back to his secret lair. Hopefully, the hidden base was still there, and he could recover some useful information about the past’s events. 

Silver had kept a large collection of tablets and newspapers so he could keep a tab on events of the past. And, when the past changes, the newspaper contents change too. Sometimes, newspapers disappear, and sometimes, more newspapers appear.

It might be strange to other people, but to Silver; it was normal - all caused by the passage of time.

Time was extremely, extremely difficult to understand, but usually; it can be explained in the concepts of cause-and-effect. Of course, that was definitely not all there is to it, and there are hundreds and hundreds theories to understand; but Silver wasn’t going to explain everything.

The white hedgehog had arrived at the entrance of his hideout after some time. He felt relieved that it still existed in this timeline; for there was one time when he came back to nothing, and he had to spend two days in a dystopian world hopelessly gathering information on historical events.

Such are the woes of a time-travelling hero, he guessed.

As he walked into the lair, his mood immediately became considerably worse.

There was only six stacks of newspaper that he saw - instead of the eight or more stacks that he was usually greeted with. He grimly dragged his feet over to the newspapers, and picked up the most recent one, expecting news that he didn’t need to know.

‘NEW EGGMAN STATUE IN EGG FORTRESS’ - Nope. That was published in the year 37 AEE…?

A.E.E.? Well, if Silver had any sense of Doctor Eggman’s antics - which he did, and had to unfortunately; experience several times - he figured that it meant ‘After Eggman Empire’ or something along those lines.

Putting the newspaper back on the pile, he lifted up publications stacked at the top so that he could see the titles of the older ones that were kept lower down the pile.

‘DEATH OF THE GREAT DOCTOR EGGMAN, BUT EMPIRE LIVES ON’ - Year 19 AEE.

Wow, Eggman sure knew how to keep his ego fueled even when he died. Silver would be impressed; if the guy didn’t have evil intentions of conquering the world.

He went further down the stack.

‘DOCTOR EGGMAN PUBLISHES SOCIAL MEDIA SITE’ - Year 3 AEE.

He was getting closer to the year of the takeover. 

‘EGGMAN STRIKES - SONIC THE HEDGEHOG DEFEATED’ - Year 1255.

There it was!

Now, all he had to do was to check the actual date of the publication of the newspaper! Silver the Hedgehog then pulled out the gazette with some enthusiasm, and spread it out right before his own eyes.

The part of the paper where the date would be printed was torn off.

He sighed deeply, and his body sagged. Of course; the universe hated him, and loved to make things difficult for him. With literally no other choice, he went for the second most relevant newspaper that was available right next to the one he just pulled out.

‘END OF THE WORLD?’ - Year 1255.

He looked at the new - well, old - piece of journal article he had pulled out. The date stated August 4th, 1255, and there were no other significant gazettes in the library from that specific year.

If he went back some time before that date, it would be fine. Silver decided to travel half a year before August 4th, 1255 - The destination in his mind was around February 1255, it would give him a little time-lag to catch up on events.

And thus, Silver the Hedgehog prepared to time travel, but something caught his attention: It was an old piece of yellow paper note pinned onto the notice board in the corner. He didn’t remember seeing it before, so he walked over to it in order to read it.

‘Silver,

When you read this note, I assume you already figured out what happened. Eggman won. Sonic lost. Our future is bleak, Silver. We need your help to change the past, to defeat Eggman and make the future a better place.

Tails

August 23rd,1255

P.S: Don’t ask me how I found your lair - it took me a very long time; and the date you need to travel to is February 5th, 1255. Find us in Sunset Heights Square.’

Well.

That was everything that Silver the Hedgehog needed to know. Smiling at the new information presented to him, he prepared his Time Vortex Manipulator for travel; keying in the appropriate time; exactly one day before the event.

Hello; February 4th, 1255...

Then he disappeared in a flash.

… But where was Sunset Heights?

It was early morning, and Silver had no idea where he was headed.

He did not belong to this time period, and the places of Mobius were - most, if not all - renamed in the future. There was only one person in one place that he knew of, and Silver was certain that the person would be there.

After all, that was all that person does - with the role of guarding a precious gemstone:

Knuckles the Echidna.

Now, he just had to find that damn floating island that floated wherever it felt like. It wasn’t easy to find a place that you cannot be sure where it was. 

It seemed it was going to be a long search.

 

-

 

Their trip to the deep depths of the Mystic Jungle nearly a week ago was a complete waste. Eggman had tricked them; the raid at the identified Eggman hideout located in the Mystic Jungle yielded not a single useful result.

It seemed like the fat scientist had finally learned some tactics.

“And I thought I’d finally get a hold of some Chaos Emeralds.” complained Rouge the Bat as they walked to where they needed to be in the Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) Headquarters - the Commander’s office.

“Rouge…” Shadow deadpanned and gave his partner a brief, unamused side glance. “We’re supposed to investigate Eggman’s disappearance, not talk about your obsession for Chaos Emeralds.”

“But I’ve been doing some treasure hunting recently, Shadow.” she responded. “And I can’t find any Chaos Emeralds. Other than yours, of course.”

“What did you do to my Emerald?” the hedgehog stared at her, unamused.

“So,” Rouge ignored the question. “I suspect that Eggman has been collecting some Chaos Emeralds in secret. Now; I’m tempted to steal the Master Emerald...”

“You-”

“Well, we’re here, Shadow.” smirked the bat as they approached the meeting room. “Let’s not make the Commander wait any longer, shall we?”

With a deep sigh, the black hedgehog opened the door and walked in, with a pompous Rouge following right behind him.

“Ah, Agent Rouge, Agent Shadow.” the G.U.N. Commander, Abraham Tower, acknowledged their arrival. He then gestured to the chairs opposite his side of the desk. “Take a seat.”

The G.U.N. officer then put aside the collection of papers he was looking at, and took out a file labelled ‘Operation: Mystic Jungle, 1255’.

“I have read your reports, Team Dark.” stated Tower as he flipped open the folder and looked for a specific document inside the thick, black file. “There were no articles of interest?”

“None at all.” Shadow replied with a slight frown.

“And Shadow here had practically turned the whole place upside-down.” Rouge added.

“Strange. Before I sent you on that mission, I was told that there were four jackals guarding that area for quite some time, and-” the commander explained. “There were some sort of casino being developed by Eggman in that area…” 

“Perhaps it might have been a decoy?” suggested Shadow, as he stared at the face of the man with his crimson ruby eyes. The look would have definitely - but unintentionally - intimidated the human a year ago.

“... that might be a huge possibility, Agent Shadow.” Tower responded, as he took out the stack of documents he had put away before. “I have just received reports regarding some unusual activity at Sand Hill - the day after your trip to Mystic Jungle.”

“Unusual?” repeated Rouge, as she folded her arms on her chest.

“Yes.” confirmed the Commander as he took another look at the report summary. “Occasional explosions, sudden large mass of objects, and geographical changes.”

“Geographical?” Shadow questioned.

“Our scientists have detected mountains and dunes appearing - and also disappearing - in that area.” Tower elaborated. “Which is impossible; under natural circumstances.”

“Sounds like someone we know?” Rouge smirked as she leaned back in her seat, looking in the direction of her partner.

“Indeed, it does sound like one of Doctor Eggman’s operations.” the hedgehog agreed, however, he was still in thought. “However, it doesn’t sound like anything he have ever done before.”

“And.” Commander Tower continued. “All of a sudden, a large pyramid had appeared in the area just a few hours ago.”

Shadow and Rouge frowned.

The door to the office suddenly burst open with a loud bang, interrupting their meeting and also surprising everyone that was in the room.

Everyone was alerted.

“Commander! It’s an emergency - Code Red!” shouted the G.U.N. Soldier.

“What is it, soldier?” demanded the Commander as he stood up, alert, with his hands slammed firmly on the desk.

“Eggman’s forces have broke into City!”

 

-

 

“Knuckles!”

The loud call of his name has startled the Guardian of the Master Emerald right out of his sleep. Groggily, he sat up and blinked his eyes rapidly in the attempt to focus them, as he noticed that it was already late morning, and that somehow; a familiar white hedgehog currently floating towards him.

“... Silver?” he questioned drowsily, shaking off the sleepy state he was in. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you go back to the future already…?”

“I have bad news! And I need your help!” replied the white hedgehog - panting - as he landed on the altar of Angel Island. “Do you-”

“Hang on, hang on; I’m not awake yet...” grumbled the red echidna as he stood up, taking in a few deep breaths while stretching his muscles. “... Tell me your story again, from the start.”

“Well, after I’ve returned to my future after the time-eater incident,” Silver began. “I saw that my world had been replaced by Eggmanland!”

“Wait; Eggmanland?” the new piece of information had completely snapped Knuckles awake. “How?”

“I don’t know the details specifically, but Sonic was somehow defeated.” replied the white hedgehog. “The Tails from that future had left me a message asking me to save them in Sunset Heights, tomorrow!”

“Sunset Heights, huh…?” Knuckles mumbled, lightly scratching his head. “... I don’t really know specific places - you do know I don’t live down there, right?”

Silver sighed - that was what he was afraid of.

In a sudden instant, both mobians found themselves being harshly pummelled onto the ground, and their bodies to become very, very wet.

Recovering from the shock, Knuckles pushed himself up from the ground, while his eyes widened at the recognition of exactly what had attacked them: Liquid, blue, and a weird, humanoid form creature.

It was Chaos!

What in the world was it doing here? It shouldn’t be here! 

“Look out!” shouted the red echidna, as he pushed the white hedgehog - who was attempting to get back on his feet - aside from another attack from the creature.

“What is that, Knuckles?” Silver inquired loudly as he stabilised himself, floating in the air using his psychokinesis.

“I’ll explain later - aim for the brain!” ordered Knuckles, as he dived for a hit. 

Since Chaos was being hostile - they had no choice but to take it down first; before it could do any harm. The creature had predicted the guardian’s movements, and quickly dodged to the side; successfully avoiding the punch.

In retaliation, Chaos extended his arms, and attempted to grab a hold of the echidna.

However, Silver saw it. With quick, trained reactions of being a psychokinetic, the white hedgehog stopped the monster’s liquid arms in mid-swing; and a bright, cyan glow surrounded the creature, holding it firmly in place.

“Now, Knuckles!”

The call to action was answered instantly, and Knuckles swung his right fist with all his strength, directly aimed the head of Chaos. It would take down the creature in a flash.

Except; it disappeared.

Knuckles blinked in confusion, as Silver stared; both mobians unsure of the current situation, or what exactly happened that caused Chaos to vanish.

“Where did it go?” asked the white hedgehog, as he frantically looked around in search of the liquid monster.

“I don’t know; but let us leave before it comes back.” Knuckles suggested, also wary of his surroundings due to the surprise attack moments before.

“But, we both don’t know where exactly Sunset Heights is located!” reminded the psychokinetic hedgehog.

“Then, let’s go find someone that could help us.” he added before Silver could attempt to pull all of his own spines out of his head.

“Right!” Silver exclaimed optimistically. 

Knuckles began to walk to the edge of the floating island, fully expecting the white hedgehog to follow him.

“Wait!” Silver stopped him before he could jump off the ledge. “Where are we going?”

“You said that Sonic will be defeated, right?” Knuckles responded with a question. “Whatever that did it must be really strong - so; we’re going to find the Chaotix - they pack quite a punch.”

And the red echidna led the white hedgehog to Green Hill after they jumped off of the floating island; with Knuckles gliding in the air, and Silver flying - thanks to his psychokinesis abilities.

The destination in mind was the Chaotix Detective Agency, and it was located specifically in Green Hill Town. It had taken quite some time to find their bearings due to Angel Island’s constantly unknown position around Mobius.

Eventually, they did arrive at the location; it was a small building in the central areas of the bustling town.

They walked in.

“Welcome to Chaotix Detective Agency!” three voices shouted all at once, as Knuckles and Silver walked through the entrance.

And right after, a certain purple chameleon had immediately facepalmed - while, at the same time, avoiding being poked by the horn on his own head.

“Vector, why do you make us do this…?” groaned Espio, loudly, as he walked to a corner of the room to sulk.

He looked as if he wanted to just disappear for a moment.

“Why; to welcome new customers, of course!” replied Vector, cheerfully, as he turned to face the visitors. But, when he realised that the visitors weren’t customers, his mood did indeed waver slightly. “Knuckles? Silver? What are you doing here?”

“Vector said there will only be discounts for new customers!” Charmy chimed in, pointing up an index finger.

“Quiet, Charmy!” hushed the crocodile; while at the same time, Espio finally felt brave enough of his recent humiliation, and turned to face the two visitors.

Knuckles sighed while he folded his arms - he really didn’t want to deal with the Chaotix’s antics right after waking up. Meanwhile, Silver the Hedgehog had taken a step forward, ready to share his story.

“Let me explain-” began the white hedgehog. “-Sonic’s going to be defeated sometime tomorrow. We need all the help we can get in Sunset Heights Square!”

“You look tired, Silver.” stated Espio, noticing the other’s fatigue from their posture and movements. “Did you just come from the future?”

“Yes, that’s right.” the white hedgehog answered with a nod.

“If you wanna rest, we have a spare bunk that you can use.” offered Vector, as he lightly scratched his head with one hand, while the other waved around to emphasise his speech.

“Breaking news alert!”

The sudden spoken words from the news station on the running television set - placed on top of a shelf - had caught the attention of everyone in the Chaotix Detective Agency.

“Doctor Eggman’s forces are currently attacking City. There is a huge threat posed, and the authorities are suggesting that all citizens stay indoors until the situation is dealt with. Currently, Sonic the Hedgehog is resisting the attacks.”

Wait…

“What date is it?” asked Silver frantically, as he looked for a calendar, or at least something that could tell him what he needed to know.

“February 5th!” Charmy provided the information.

Silver felt a sense of dread, followed by impending doom. No - it couldn’t be; he was very sure that he definitely keyed in February 4th on his device!

Something had gone wrong…

“I don’t know how, but somehow, I’ve been brought to the wrong date!” stated Silver, as his eyes looked more serious than ever. “We have to get there immediately!”

Espio’s brows - if he had any - furrowed.

“I believe Charmy and I can follow you there first, since we have the speed.” suggested the chameleon, causing the white hedgehog to focus his attention on him.

“I’m going to need you guys to bring me there - I have no idea where Sunset Heights is.” stated Silver honestly, as Espio began to lead them out of the establishment.

“Vector and I will try to catch up as fast as we can.” added Knuckles.

And moments later, the Chaotix Detective Agency was closed.

 

-

 

Shadow the Hedgehog made his way to City as quickly as he could - at the speed of sound - with his skates bursting out flames through its thrusters; the scorching heat leaving a mark in the ground wherever he went.

In their haste, and their requirements for their mission to stop Eggman, Team Dark has decided to send Shadow - with his speed - to resist Eggman’s attack in City; while Omega - due to circumstances - was sent to Sand Hill, in order to investigate Doctor Eggman’s new identified base - huge, towering pyramids that somehow suddenly appeared several hours prior.

Concurrently, Rouge the Bat had stayed behind in G.U.N. Headquarters in order to supervise the operations; as she was good at planning, and partly because the other two could get to places quicker than she could - especially Shadow.

Time was a luxury that they didn’t have in this emergency.

“Report in, Omega.” Rouge instructed over their wrist communicators, as the black hedgehog continued his race from the G.U.N. Headquarters in Metropolis to City. 

Omega should have reached his destination already - it was nearly three to four minutes since they’ve set off.

“Commencing extermination on Eggman robots.” came a response from a robotic voice that Rouge and Shadow were quite familiar with.

“Extermination?” the female bat exclaimed incredulously. “You’re supposed to be on recon! Stealth!”

“Concern not necessary. Eggman robots are being eliminated.”

“I knew this was a bad idea...” commented Shadow regarding their robot teammate, as he closed in to City; his skates still running at full power. “And this doesn’t look good, Rouge.”

“What’s the situation over there, Shadow?” asked the bat as she pulled up Shadow’s coordinates on the radar.

“Parts of City are burning down.” reported the black hedgehog as he chose the shortest route he could remember to City’s centre: Sunset Heights.

“What?” Rouge couldn’t believe it. Eggman had never managed to destroy a place that quickly before. This was a first - just what exactly is going on?

“Robots are being exterminated.” came another report from E-123. “New enemy type detected. Data unavailable - could not identify.”

“Is it a new type of robot?” inquired Rouge as she typed down the new information received. “No matter, just take it down, and hack into the doctor’s computers.”

“Subject is biological.” came the reply. “Taking down target now.”

Shadow frowned as he approached the vicinity of Sunset Heights.

Biological? Eggman had never dealt with anything living before - that was more of the scientist’s grandfather, Gerald Robotnik’s field of expertise. Just what was the fat man planning this time? Was this new biological weapon the reason of his long hiatus?

“It’s not a robot?” questioned Rouge with some shock apparent in her voice. “Do not kill them, Omega!”

“Error: Position coordinates lost.” Omega’s robotic voice spoke through the intercom. “Current location unknown.”

“Omega? Omega!” Rouge called. “Respond!”

There came no response.

While in his rush, Shadow had heard screams from people he passed by. The contents screamed by the civilians made him slightly confused.

“It’s Shadow the Hedgehog! Run!”

What exactly was going on? People were afraid of him? It had took him quite some effort to clear his name the last time a similar situation had happened!

In this part of City, the black hedgehog could see even more instances of burning structures.

He huffed - right now, that was not the priority on his list. Shadow swiftly closed in on the source of explosions, and screaming that he could see and hear. He was very close to engaging the enemy forces; as he realised the place he was in was near the square, in Park Avenue.

“I can’t get through to Omega, Shadow.” reported Rouge with a sigh. She sounded stressed. “How’s your situation?”

“I’m engaging enemy forces now.” replied Shadow with his deep voice, as he jumped up a great height in the air and looked in the direction of the enemy swarm, ready to attack the Eggman robots.

It was time to take out the trash.

Rolling into a ball after aiming at the enemy, Shadow the Hedgehog spun his body rapidly, causing the momentum produced to propel himself forward; launching himself at the target enemy robot like a fired cannonball.

And the robot was instantly taken down - with a hole through its constructed metal body. Within the blink of an eye, most of the Egg Pawns in the vicinity had fallen to the moves of one Shadow the Hedgehog.

Landing once more on the ground, Shadow frowned, and his brows furrowed. He moved his eyes around, scanning the area as more Eggman robots approached. Why did he feel like something was still amiss?

“Error: Probe to parietal lobe detected.” spoke Omega once more through the communicator. “Perception lost.”

“Omega?” Rouge tried again, pushing up the robot’s transmitter volume on the control panel. “Respond, Omega!”

“He can’t hear us.” Shadow deduced as he took down the remaining Eggman robots in the area. “Something’s very wrong, Rouge.”

“Unidentified system intrusion. Potential internal damage detected. Emergency shutdown initiated.” reported E-123.

“He’s down, Shadow.” Rouge sighed loudly. “How’s things for you?”

“All enemies down.” Shadow replied as he landed on the ground after taking down the final enemy.

THUNK! - the sound of heavy, dense steel hitting the ground.

“Except me, Shadow the Hedgehog.”

The named hedgehog’s eyes widened, and he spun around after hearing the deep, ominous voice that loomed behind him.

He was greeted with the sight of a floating, black-furred, masked mobian with a head of long, white, flowing mane. The mobian was clearly male, and a purplish-red jewel was embedded in his chest. It was glowed a vicious, deep red.

He also saw Omega beneath him; broken, with sparks coming out of his damaged systems.

“Who are you?” asked Shadow with rage; he didn’t particularly like the sight of his destroyed robot companion.

The unknown enemy took a breath before speaking.

“I am… Infinite…!”

The reply to Shadow’s question came, together along with a burst of bright, red light that blinded the hedgehog’s vision. Blinking in the effort to fight off the light pollution, he opened his eyes the first chance he got, and he noticed that his surroundings had changed:

Shadow the Hedgehog was no longer in City.

 

-

 

“Sonic, where are you?” Tails’s young, panicked voice suddenly rang through the named hedgehog’s communicator - worn around the wrist on the right hand, hidden inside glove cuffs.

The blue hedgehog was currently in Green Hill Town, relaxing after a recording session in the town’s studio with a band which requested for his vocals on a new rock song; with some cheesy lyrics that he weirdly enjoyed.

“Hey Tails!” replied the hedgehog cheerfully. “What’s up? You sound kinda worried.”

“Eggman’s attacking City, Sonic!” responded the fox. “I’m in Sunset Heights - you better get over here, fast!”

“I’m already on it, buddy!”

And Sonic the Hedgehog immediately took off at his full speed - at the speed of sound - as soon as he heard the news, frightening some people around the hero as he swiftly made his way out the town.

He left Green Hill Town within the blink of an eye, and plotted the quickest route from Green Hill to City in his head. As he ran, he noticed some sand on the paths, and also; for some reason, hills of sand seen in the distant landscapes of Green Hill.

While Sonic wasn’t the best at geography, he knew that although Green Hill and Sand Hill were right next to one another; in this part of Green Hill he was currently in, he should not be able to see deserts!

Eggman, somehow, had to be the cause of this plague of sand.

And - speaking of Eggman - there were some of the evil scientist’s robots surrounding the hilly, grassy plains of Green Hill; directly in the route of which he wanted to take.

He had no choice but to take them all down.

Pushing himself further, he burst out the rest of his available speed straight into his legs; and a sonic boom sounded. In quick succession, he rolled up his body into a tight ball and plowed through all of the Egg Pawns that blocked his path like a rocket-propelled wrecking ball.

“I’m almost there, Tails!” announced Sonic after he destroyed the dozens of robots with ease. “How’s it looking over there?”

“I’m trying to hold them back; but there’s too many of them!” Tails responded.

“Just get the people over there to safety.” Sonic replied as he caught the sights of City.

“I got it.” Tails stopped the transmission of his voice, and did what the blue hedgehog wanted.

The fox quickly checked his own surroundings, and noticed that there was a small alleyway that the civilians could escape through. Unfortunately, the path was being blocked by rubble from destroyed structures caused by the attackers. 

There were at least twenty Egg Pawns currently in the area; and Tails only had his flight ability working for him. He carried an Eggman robot up in the air and dropped it on another - the action damaging the robots.

And luckily, these robots were bulletproof, so he could use them as temporary shields from gunshots with ease.

“It’s hopeless, Tails.” taunted Eggman who sat in his floating vehicle while watching the fox get rid of his robots one by one. “Robots, get them all at once!”

“Not so fast, Egghead!”

The familiar voice immediately attracted Tails’s attention.

The Hero of Mobius suddenly appeared out of the blue, and quickly began taking down all of the robots in the square that threatened the lives of the innocent citizens of Mobius; earning some cheering from the civilians.

“Get them out of here, Tails!” Sonic shouted over to the fox as he landed on the ground, ready to engage another wave of Egg Pawns, and jumped once more into the air.

“Roger!” the fox wasted no time and started to clear up the path for the blocked alleyway that he spotted moments prior, as other mobians joined in to help.

While that happened, Sonic the Hedgehog had already finished his work and took down all of the evil scientist’s robots that attacked City; and now, the robots were nothing more than scrap metal on the grounds of Sunset Heights.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Sonic!” announced Eggman, as he floated up to the blue hedgehog in his Egg-Mobile. “And this time, all my efforts shall pay off!”

Sonic snorted in response, and he began his cocky speech. “C’mon, Egghead! We’ve been through this so many times! You and I both know how it ends!”

“Well…” Eggman smirked back with an expression similar to the hedgehog. “This time, it’s different!”

Sonic raised an unamused eyebrow as he slightly pouted in anticipation.

“Observe closely, hedgehog.”

But he couldn’t observe whatever the grinning, gesturing scientist wanted him to; because the Hero of Mobius’s eyes had suddenly caught a sudden, swift movement in the corner of their vision and had made the blue hedgehog switch to full alert mode in an instant - ready to engage the potential threat.

In a flash, he dodged; jumping away from the black ball aimed towards him at an incredibly fast speed, which would have impressed the blue hedgehog.

And the black ball - somehow - unraveled; and, revealed to the blue hero:

“Shadow…?!”

It explained the speed. But why was Shadow… fighting him?

The black hedgehog stood still and did not speak a single word - keeping complete silence; and before Sonic could go into a tangent of thoughts and theories in his head regarding his rival’s actions, he heard the unmistakable sound of a jet engine coming for him.

Sonic felt like a gigantic bullet had shot right into his entire body as he was violently plunged into the nearest wall. He heard the wall - that he landed on - crack, but luckily; his thick spines had shielded his skull, as he finally fell onto the ground.

“Sonic!” screamed the young spectating fox as he ran over to help the blue hedgehog.

It was agony, but it wasn’t anything he hasn’t experienced before. He pushed himself off of the ground, groaning as he checked who or what had decided to - what he thought - ram a bullet train right into his hedgehog body.

“... Metal…?” Sonic named in shock as he noticed another figure appear in his vision, which elevated his shock even further. “-and, Chaos…?!”

A loud laughter had caught the blue hedgehog’s attention.

“Sonic!” Eggman shouted suddenly, before returning to his smug tone of voice. “Behold; my ultimate creation…!”

And the evil genius had gestured to a direction in the air, revealing to Sonic:

A character that he has never encountered before. 

It floated in the air, and whatever it was; it was definitely not a robot. The black-furred mobian was definitely male, and he wore a mask; while a jewel embedded on his chest glowed menacingly red, and Sonic could see some hints of elegance in the other’s posture.

He wasn’t sure what he was really thinking, but something in Sonic told him that the new enemy is the top priority in his list of concerns.

Sonic jumped up in a flash, rolled into a ball and he launched himself at the enemy with his signature homing attack.

But somehow, he didn’t feel a hit.

For once in a long time, Sonic felt puzzled as he landed on the ground - his aim was perfect; why didn’t his hit land on the guy?

Unless…

“Tails, get behind me.” Sonic ordered as he looked at the floating, masked mobian once more, seemingly sizing up the foe. The young fox had looked hesitant, but followed the hedgehog’s instructions nonetheless.

There was no possible way, but somehow; this enemy… was faster than him. This new, unknown enemy he had never seen before was faster than he was; faster than Sonic the Hedgehog.

It was a huge blow to the pride of the fastest thing alive.

However, he couldn’t continue his train of thoughts, as all the enemies - Shadow, Metal Sonic, Chaos, and the unknown mobian - all attacked him at once without warning in an instant of time.

It was quick, and it was almost like they teleported. They moved so fast; too fast for the blue hero’s eyes to catch, but he had somehow managed to push Tails away before the blows could land.

Sonic braced for what was going to seem like how it felt to be struck by a meteor.

 

-

 

Rouge the Bat had stared at the radar in utter confusion, as the blinking light on the map left the region of dense civilisation with great speed; moving swiftly across the screen.

Why was Shadow leaving City? Has he already finished the job?

“Shadow! What’s the situation?” shouted the bat over the intercoms, fully expecting a response from her black hedgehog teammate. 

But there came no reply.

Rouge felt somewhat irritated, and at the same time; quite unsure of what to do.

What exactly was going on? What was wrong with their communication systems? Has Eggman somehow managed to jam up their communication links and signals?

A quick check on the signal packets coming from both of the other individuals in the channel - Shadow and Omega - confirmed that: No, the signal was excellent - there had been no technical faults since the channel opened up around nine minutes ago.

So why the heck weren’t her voice transmissions getting through?

“Rouge!” it was Shadow. As soon as she heard her name called, her ears perked, and she listened on what her hedgehog partner had to say. “Where am I? Are you able to track my location?”

“Shadow, you’re leaving City, on the main routes leading into it!” Rouge wasted no time, and immediately responded, hoping that her teammate could hear her.

“What?” came the reply from the other’s deep voice. “Omega was just destroyed, Rouge, I saw it.”

“Shadow...?” the bat muttered. She was baffled - Shadow’s side of their conversation had made absolutely no sense to her. “You’re not in City anymore! And Omega was indeed taken down!”

“It looks like Green Hill, Rouge; visually, at least-” responded the black hedgehog once more. “-but this isn’t the Green Hill we’re used to; something’s very wrong.”

Something was indeed very, very wrong.

Rouge promptly deduced that Shadow could not hear her; but was instead, hearing her own voice telling him false information! She furiously typed into the keyboard of the workstation, and pulled out the connection data and history of their communication channel links.

Three connections; including her own. No abnormalities. No hackers detected. Nothing was wrong with the intercom systems - it was the same thing she always saw.

Sighing with great frustration, she stood up while listening in to Shadow talk to ‘Rouge’ about who-knows-what, and picked up her own portable wrist communicator before leaving the room; hastily making her way out of G.U.N. Headquarters.

She had to find Shadow.

With a radar tracker activated on her transmitter, she programmed the device to track down Shadow’s communicator location; and hopefully, she could reach him in time before things go from bad to worse.

Standing outside the G.U.N. Headquarters main entrance, she took off - flying towards the displayed location on the tracker.

Meanwhile; a red striped, black hedgehog ran through what appeared to be Green Hill. Or, at least, a part of Green Hill that he had never seen before; but that was impossible - he knew most of Mobius like the back of his hand. Shadow the Hedgehog found himself running around the familiar, but unknown place; while having to clear his paths from Eggman robots that blocked his way.

Where exactly was he?

That enemy - Infinite - was somehow the cause of this.

“Anyway, Shadow, we’ve really got to go pick up Omega.” said Rouge - or was it really Rouge? It did sound like her, but Shadow could pinpoint that something was quite unfamiliar about this Rouge...

Perhaps this was all an illusion that he was trapped in…?

It would explain this strange, new layout of Green Hill...

Shadow the Hedgehog’s eyes had suddenly widened as he recalled a recent memory: Before he arrived here, Omega had mentioned something about something…

Something important…

He attacked another Eggman robot before landing back on his feet. The area surrounding him was now clear of enemies threatening to attack.

… the parietal lobe!

Now, if he remembered correctly during his extensive time aboard Space Colony ARK and hearing his creator - Gerald Robotnik - babble continuously about parts of the brain: the parietal lobe region of the brain was responsible for the senses.

He frowned as he realised that his perception of reality was somehow being altered by that ominous character named Infinite. He didn’t know how it worked; but wherever he was currently, he was definitely not in Green Hill.

But, how does he get out of this illusion? Does the effect just wear off eventually?

Shadow sincerely hoped so.

However, he couldn’t just stand here and wait for things to happen.

Closing his eyes, he tried to focus his energy. He tried to feel the Chaos Energy field of Mobius. He tried to sense his surroundings - but it was hopeless, as all he could sense was some weird, strange unknown energy he never experienced before.

He had to find a way out of this…

“Shadow!”

His eyes snapped open. That was Rouge’s voice; and it didn’t come from the communicator. The voice that called him was free of any digital processing from the device. It was the real, actual voice of his partner - it was very soft, and far away, but he could hear it.

He tried to focus again.

Frustration built up in him as he felt the shrouding, unknown energy somehow reacting with his own Chaos Energy, and seemed to block any attempts of breaking free of the illusion.

He turned to the one thing in mind that he could think of.

“Chaos Control!”

In a flash, the Green Hill he was in disappeared.

Consequently, Shadow the Hedgehog was revealed to be located a great distance away from City, in the routes that connected Green Hill - the real one - and City together.

Had the usage of Chaos Energy somehow resetted his senses? Although nothing made sense to him currently, it did have some logic to it. After all, Chaos Energy was something he was very familiar with.

He stopped the flow of his energy into Chaos Control.

“Shadow!” it was Rouge, and she just landed on the ground next to him. “What happened?” 

“Rouge...” acknowledged the black hedgehog, as he realised a sudden headache he acquired out of nowhere. “I was under an illusion.”

“An illusion?” gasped the female bat as she watched her partner massage the midsection of his spined head. “How?”

“I’ve no idea... but somehow; an enemy named Infinite, is able to alter the perception of reality.” Shadow responded as he turned his head around to check their surroundings. “I bet he’s still somewhere around here - the illusion was strong.”

“... This is worse than I’ve thought, Shadow.” Rouge dreaded after receiving the new piece of information. Her eyes turned serious. “Sonic’s in great danger!”

“Sonic?” he frowned. “Why?”

“I’ve received reports of him fighting Eggman in Sunset Heights!”

 

-

 

They - Silver, Espio, and Charmy - had entered the area not long ago, and City was really under serious attack from Eggman - buildings burnt, grounds cracked, and mobians screamed; all caused by the evil scientist’s vicious robot army spread throughout the region of civilisation.

“SONIC!”

Silver’s eyes widened as he recognised the voice from some distance away that had just screamed the blue hedgehog’s name:

… it was Tails!

“Espio!” the white hedgehog called out to the ninja beneath him running on the ground - he had to make sure that he wasn’t hallucinating from his lack of sleep. “Did you hear that?”

“I did.” replied the chameleon, as he seemed to increase his pace - running even faster than before. “We must hurry!”

After hearing the ninja’s suggestion, Silver decided to go ahead and reach Sunset Heights first in order to help as soon as he can. With his telekinesis, he focused his mind on where the voice before came from, and boosted himself through the air at the fastest speed he could manage without exerting too much of his own energy.

Meanwhile, Espio and Charmy had taken the shortest path available to the square in order to reach faster; with the ninja chameleon jumping over walls and fences to shorten their travel, and the young bee simply flying over obstacles in the way.

To any regular citizen of Mobius, the high amounts of physical exertion performed by the chameleon would have long since tired them out. But for Espio; his disciplined, ninja training routine had conditioned his body with exceptional strength, stamina and flexibility.

A few moments after Silver went ahead, the duo from Chaotix finally reached the location of Sunset Heights Square themselves.

It didn’t look good.

Sonic was sprawled out on the ground; unconscious; while Tails shook his body desperately, trying to snap the hero awake - but to no avail. The purple chameleon observed that the hedgehog was still breathing - from the rise and fall movements of his chest.

Shortly after noticing them in the square; bright, glowing, and trailing lights of red and cyan surrounding two flying mobians - black, and white furred - had attracted their attention:

Silver had engaged an unknown masked enemy in what seemed to be a violently out-of-control duel in the air, as they dashed across the open space dynamically - in seemingly random paths and directions - while they blocked each other’s attacks and immediately served one of their own.

It was an absolute madness of a dogfight.

“Espio, look!” Charmy pointed to a direction ahead of them on the ground, redirecting the ninja’s attention from the flying fighters.

… Shadow...?

… With Metal Sonic, and Chaos?

And right at that moment, Espio saw something new right out of the corner of his vision:

It was a moderately large wave of Eggman robots, and they stood right behind Tails, ready to strike the fox and the unconscious hero.

“Charmy!” he called for the other’s attention. “Let’s move!”

“Right!”

The duo from Chaotix jumped straight into battle and engaged the robot enemies, causing Tails to cry out in surprise as they swiftly dashed over his head. Then, the young fox started hearing explosions go off behind him.

He suddenly realised that in his yearning for Sonic to awaken, he had completely lost track of the events and peril that surrounded him.

… Sonic wouldn’t have wanted this!

“Tails!” a familiar voice shouted, and he looked over to the source. It was Knuckles, followed by Vector the Crocodile. “Catch!”

He reacted quite quickly, and held out his arms in position - ready to fetch the yellow object that landed right into his holds: It was his Miles Electric.

“Do your thing - we’ll handle the fight!” assured Knuckles, as he began to jump into action; punching robots with his vicious fists, together with the crocodile, causing more explosions to go off in the area.

Not looking to waste any more time, Tails began to operate the device - of which was his own creation - starting his attempts to analyse and figure out the unknown enemy’s abilities as his friends fought to oppose the evil scientist.

Sonic’s team - even without the hedgehog himself - still stood a fighting chance!

“Hey Esp’! To your right!” Vector shouted, and the ninja chameleon reacted in an instant, swinging his kunai at the enemy.

Doctor Eggman had sat in his Egg-Mobile, furiously watching this new turn of events: His army of robots were slowly dwindling, and it doesn’t help that that telekinetic hedgehog was directly distracting Infinite - the wielder of the Phantom Ruby!

This wasn’t what he planned at all!

The invasion of City was to be a sudden, unexpected attack; and then after taking over City, he would begin to expand his operations, and spread his domination to the rest of Mobius! - It was a brilliant plan, created with his brilliant mind!

All the working, planning, and execution of his plans which began from this morning would soon go to waste if he didn’t think fast for a solution to counterattack.

This unfortunate turn of events was most definitely the cause of that Silver the Hedgehog!

“What are you doing, you fool!” and agitated Eggman suddenly and angrily exclaimed to his henchmen. “Stop fighting him and use your powers!”

It had irritated the masked jackal more than a bit to be named a fool - especially by the fat man - and it caused his anger to flare up. However, despite the insult; he still found sense in the other’s words and stopped properly engaging the white hedgehog in a fair fight.

It was time to fight dirty.

With one swift, unexpected lunge at the enemy, Infinite had managed to knock the hedgehog - with the gift of flight - quite some distance away. The hedgehog yelped in surprise as his body spun rapidly in the air while the cyan glow around his body disappeared for a brief second before it reappeared.

It would take seconds for him to recover, and engage once more.

But that was all the time he needed.

Focusing his mind, he activated the powers of the Phantom Ruby, creating thousands of Eggman’s robots that appeared out of nowhere and started to engage in fights with the heroes immediately.

“What the-!?” came an exclamation from a confused Knuckles the Echidna.

Eggman laughed with maniacal glee - Yes! Sonic’s friends will definitely not be able to handle such a large, unexpected wave of robots! And, with Shadow the Hedgehog distracted and framed as an enemy - they stood no chance of fighting back!

Surely, it was his victory! Time-travelling hedgehog that wished to foil his plans or not - he was going to take over the world!

“I’ll just push this button right here!” Eggman commented on his own actions - quite giddy with delight - as he pressed a button on his Egg-Mobile which deployed a heavy-duty grabber from the underside of the floating vehicle.

No more failures!

He was going to capture Sonic the Hedgehog - he was going to win!

“No! Sonic!”

“TAILS!”

Knuckles the Echidna dived for the two-tailed fox as a missile aimed directly at him threatened to blow up the young fox. They fell onto the ground as the explosive detonated close to them, while Tails watched Sonic disappear into the storage compartment of the Egg-Mobile.

Silver had noticed the situation, and was forced to abandon his fight against the masked enemy. He immediately responded to Tails and Knuckles’s predicament and rescued them using his telekinetic powers before they could be killed - by bullets or explosives - by the hundreds of robots surrounding them.

The situation just turned a thousand times worse for Team Sonic:

There were too many robots. There were too little of them. It was just too dangerous.

The telekinetic analysed the Chaotix’s situation; it was a losing battle, but they still didn’t give up their efforts, because they were unaware that another swarm of robots had just appeared - ready to decimate them.

They stood no chance in this fight as it went on.

“We have to retreat!” announced Silver.

“But, Sonic-” Tails begged.

“We have no choice!”

With the remains of his energy and tiny amount of mental focus he had left, Silver had picked everyone up - the Chaotix, Knuckles, and Tails - up from the ground entirely as he boosted them through the air quite forcefully; getting them out danger before tragedy could strike.

And immediately, right after they left; the real, living, Shadow the Hedgehog had finally arrived along with Rouge the Bat - but they were too late. They had seen the last moments of exactly what had happened with their own eyes: with Silver bringing everyone out of City; to safety.

“Rouge.” Shadow called his partner with a serious voice. “Hold onto me.”

The bat obliged without quip, and clasped her hand on the black hedgehog’s forearm.

“Chaos control!” chanted Shadow, and the two G.U.N. agents disappeared in a flash of light.

The heroes who fought the evil forces just mere moments ago were forced to retreat. The Hero of Mobius was captured, successfully, by his very own nemesis.

Doctor Eggman had finally won.

Sonic the Hedgehog lost.

Mobius - as they knew it - was gone.

 

-


	6. Gadget the Wolf Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story arc will expound on the background of Gadget the Wolf, the "official" not-official character of Sonic Forces.

In a particular room on the third floor of the prestigious City Music School, a figure sat alone behind a black Yamaha grand piano, and music was being performed by the lone musician sat practicing in the room.

An image of a beautiful scenery of nature was painted into the male musician’s mind; his imagination, as he expressed the notes written on the music sheet to the best of his abilities.

A year had just passed, once more...

When did he start learning the piano? He briefly wondered to himself, as his red-furred fingers danced across the keyboard gracefully, producing beautiful tones out of the equally beautifully crafted instrument.

The sounds of indescribable, exquisite tones that somehow; perfectly described the phrases: Beautifully tragic, and wonderfully sad.

When did this start?

It was nearly six years ago, and Gadget the Wolf was only at the tender age of twelve.

Twelve.

And at that age, misfortune had struck his life. He could almost remember what happened:

“Hey, who wants to take a look at what the nerd’s got in his diary?” a loud voice had exclaimed to everyone in the classroom as the mobian entered, while a hand held up a small, black book. 

Nearly all of the males in the classroom turned rowdy at the interest of the diary’s contents, along with some slightly interested females.

Gadget was some distances behind the bully. He ran, in order to catch up; in order to snatch back the book full of his secrets, and his own private thoughts - his own safe haven to express himself.

“I guess I’ll read it out loud, then! November 4th, 1249-” at that point in time, Gadget had ran into the classroom, causing some attention to fall on him. “-oh hey, nerd! Or should I say... fag?”

He froze. His breath stopped. His eyes widened.

No...

Nobody was supposed to know. Nobody was supposed to know of the secret that he kept to himself all this time. Nobody was supposed to know that he was - in fact - attracted to his own gender.

Feeling desperate and hopeless of the situation, Gadget dived for his diary.

“Give it back!”

“I don’t think so, fag!”

He slammed his hands on the keyboard suddenly - producing a harsh, hideous sound that rang out of the Yamaha instrument. 

He felt rage. He felt despair. He felt futile.

With his right foot off of the sustain pedal; he lifted his hands, causing the piano to stop ringing.

That was the day he stopped talking, the day he actively searched for another medium to express himself; to let the world know what he felt, without having the need to actually make himself vulnerable, or the need to be understood by words.

Since then, Gadget changed. He wasn’t like what he was before. He chose to stop talking. He chose to stop writing. As a result, his grades in school plummeted, and not one single staff in the educational institution knew why.

And to add salt to the wound: in that terrible, dreadful year; his mother - who had him at the age of around 20 - had died while protecting the young wolf from Doctor Eggman’s vicious robots, during one of his attempts to conquer the world.

The family of two had just moved houses from the countryside to the city - uncreatively named City. And just a week after they settled in; the infamous Doctor Eggman struck.

She had told him to run; to never look back, to never stop.

A week before Gadget’s mother’s tragic fate, she had heard what happened - from the young wolf himself - and transferred him to a Music School; because she understood what their sweet, innocent child wanted:

He just wanted people to know how he felt, without the need for words.

And she found him his solution: Music - with its endless mysteries, and its endless possibilities. To the red wolf, it was a language that allowed the communication of emotions, without the need to be defined by words.

And it was also the parting gift of his mother to him.

For that reason, Gadget had fully accepted the medium of music - Classical Music - the most powerful form of expression and creativity that is required out of an individual, and for the sake of acquiring the full range of expression that he needed - craved - he chose the piano.

The piano, with its range of seven octaves of notes to choose from, was the instrument with the most versatility, with the most ability to express, with the most ability to speak without words.

It was an instrument that allows him to play all by himself with so many voices to choose from - a full orchestra laid out in front of him within all 88 keys - an instrument that lets himself be alone, in the safety and comfort of his own mind.

He stared at the score laid out in front of him.

To Gadget, the notes written on the scores didn’t just instruct him on what to play on the instrument - it told him a story. A story; that he could wrap up with his imagination, and express out through musical notes with every press of the ivory key using his fingers.

It allowed him to express himself without exposing himself - It was the perfect solution.

He didn’t need to talk anymore, because the piano will do all the talking for him.

As such, it meant that he was incredibly shy in social situations.

However, most of the students in the music school - being sensitive musicians - had understood him. Although they didn’t know any specific details from the wolf himself, they understood what he had to say, from the tones that any piano produced whenever he sat behind them and played.

And Gadget was thankful.

He placed his hands onto the keyboard of the piano again, ready to improvise a piece in the simple key of E Minor, and he started to perform the first few notes that he desired to play.

Without warning, his phone rang, interrupting his improvisation.

It was an alarm set in the afternoon for his part-time job in a computer shop in the central areas of City, in Sunset Heights. It was an okay job, and it paid decently; to add on more, he didn’t need to talk because he assembled computers in a room away from the main part of the store.

With a sigh, he packed up his scores, covered up the keyboard neatly, and left the practice room. He desired some excitement in his life; not this routine of music, performing, and going to work to earn a living, and performing more - for money.

Gadget the Wolf slowly walked down the hallway towards the lift.

Although he loved his craft, it was getting tiring - it was becoming a chore, it was becoming boring.

And if Gadget knew: he would be finding his life being thrown into a new, unknown, entirely different path in the near future.

 

-

 

The red wolf was making his way to his part-time workplace, in Sunset Heights, when all of a sudden, a somewhat familiar voice of a mad, old man started to cackle out of nowhere, and robots appeared in his path.

“Look out!”

And he was suddenly pushed harshly onto the ground, as he heard a loud explosion going off near him, followed by some screams.

That hurt quite a bit...

“Fool!” he heard someone shout angrily. “Don’t hit anyone! Who am I going to rule if everyone dies?”

What the hell was that?

Gadget looked to the person who just saved him from literally being hit by an - although, small - explosive: it was a young, yellow fox with two tails - and the mobian seemed, somehow, incredibly familiar to him…

In the corner of his eyes, he could see people running away, panicking, screaming.

“Everyone, try to stay in cover!” he shouted out loud as he stood up from the ground, using his tails to propel himself into the air like a helicopter, and began to speak into a device wrapped around his right wrist. “Sonic, where are you?”

A bitter feeling settled in his gut as he heard the Hero of Mobius’s name, but...

Wasn’t that fox... the one named Tails? The same fox who constantly hung around Sonic the Hedgehog, saving the world from Doctor Eggman more times than anyone could ever imagine...?

It definitely was, but right now, it wasn’t the time to recall memories of someone he didn’t know.

A link clicked up in his mind. He somehow expected this; the day where he could unfortunately get caught up in one of Doctor Eggman’s attacks, but he was never really ready for it.

Today might very well be his death day.

With urgency and panic of the perilous situation, Gadget the Wolf scrambled up from the ground that he was sprawled out on, and began to run away from the robots.

However, one of them was blocking his way, impeding his escape from the area.

He felt dread and hopelessness flow through his body, and he never realised that you could feel your own blood flowing through your veins before, until this moment.

All of a sudden, the robot that stood in front of him burst into flames, and he shielded himself with his arms from the smithereens.

What happened?

He scanned the surroundings with his eyes and…

Wow.

Somehow, the young yellow fox was able to redirect rockets shot out by the evil madman’s robots by changing their trajectory as soon as they launched out of the barrel.

He caught himself - this was not the time to stare and be impressed! He had to get out!

However, another quick scan of the area had revealed that there were no escape routes available; they were all blocked off, either by rubble or enemy.

It seemed hopeless.

“Not so fast, Egghead!”

It was Sonic the Hedgehog! And right after he appeared, he started taking down all of the evil scientist’s robots in the square with practiced ease.

Gadget had never seen the blue hedgehog in person before… but he had to admit that the hero was quite… handsome.

No! Now was not the time to think about these things!

He had to escape before he gets killed!

Gadget got up from the ground for the second time, while he heard people cheering for the hero as he destroyed the final enemy in the vicinity.

“Get them out of here, Tails!” he heard the blue hedgehog shout over to the fox as he landed on the ground, ready to engage another wave of enemies, and jumped once more into the air.

“Roger!” the fox wasted no time and started to clear up the path for a blocked alleyway that Gadget had seen moments prior, as other mobians joined in to help.

Usually, he didn’t bother with being helpful; but this time; he decided that he would provide his services to clear up the path too - his life was on the line.

In just a few moments, the mountain of piled up debris from the damaged structures had been cleared away, and the alleyway - the path to freedom - was now open.

Immediately after the path was finally opened, all the trapped civilians had began to make their way through the path frantically, not wanting to stay in the square for any longer than they had to; and Gadget followed along into the small alleyway.

While that happened, Sonic the Hedgehog had already finished his work and took down all of the evil scientist’s robots that attacked City; and now, the robots were nothing more than scrap metal on the grounds of Sunset Heights.

Looking behind him for one final time, he could see Sonic the Hedgehog talking to the evil Doctor Eggman about who-knows-what; and Gadget felt slight anger flare up within him as he wondered why on Mobius wasn’t the hero taking down the enemy and ending the invasion immediately.

He firmly believed, and felt that Sonic the Hedgehog - the Hero of Mobius - shouldn’t take his time on these things; especially on preventing the loss of even more lives! But instead, he was standing there, talking to his nemesis like old friends who never met in a long time!

His mother had died because of him - the blue hedgehog that prided himself in speed; as Gadget has seen multiple times on television and news reports.

Maybe he wasn’t such a good hero as everyone saw him, after all.

Furious, he began to walk away from the area with heavier footsteps; in a slightly stomping manner, while the other mobians around him pondered on the possible reasons of the red wolf’s sudden mood change.

“The area is clear!” he heard someone ahead of them exclaim in joy.

Excellent.

Perhaps he can finally get out of this place and continue with his stupid, sad, and boring life.

Just like how it was always meant to be.

He knew he had to escape from the city, but before that; he had to pick something up from his apartment.

-


	7. Genesis of the Resistance Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This arc of story will expound on the formation of the Resistance, as known as Sonic Forces in the later arcs of this AU.

They had successfully escaped with the powers of Silver the Hedgehog, and they were brought into a location that somehow, they never knew of before. It was a simple-looking, moderately large concrete building that served as a bunker.

When exactly did this place appear?

“This is my secret lair.” stated Silver, as they were set down onto the ground after minutes of flight. “You can all stay here. I’ll go back to City to rescue survivors.”

“No, Silver.” Espio stopped him before the hedgehog could leave. “You need to rest.”

“You do seem too tired.” added Knuckles.

Silver looked at the purple chameleon while he seemed to be in deep thought.

“Fine.” Silver decided after some time. “But you need to remember this place. Remember how it looks like - be very, very aware of its existence.”

“Why?” Knuckles chimed in to the conversation with a query before Espio could reply. “And, where are we, anyway?”

“We’re in the midsts of the dividing line between Green Hill and Sand Hill. This place is difficult to find, because it’s right between two different climates.” the white hedgehog explained, as he breathed deeply; trying to keep himself alert. “And it’s even more harder to find because I’ve used a perception filtering device to keep this place safe.”

“Perception filtering device?” Tails breathed. “Such a device exists?”

“What does that mean?” Charmy asked as he flew around in the air.

“In other words; you can’t see this place unless you are very aware of it.” Silver elaborated. “It’s the reason why nobody knows this place exist.”

“Perfect place for a hideout, then.” Vector deduced.

Espio, meanwhile, stared once more at the hedgehog trying his best to stay awake - If Silver didn’t go to bed soon, he would knock him out himself; for if any unexpected situation arises, the hedgehog needed the energy and focus to react to danger.

“Silver, I insist you rest.” the purple chameleon spoke sternly. “We will take care of rescuing the survivors.”

“... Tails will stay here with you.” Knuckles added, looking at the depressed young fox, who did not argue against the idea.

Sighing, Silver had no other choice but to comply - he was extremely sleep deprived, and he cannot really function properly anymore. To make things worse: the large usage of his psychokinesis several minutes earlier didn’t help his case, either.

“Fine, I’ll go to bed.” he announced as he walked through the entrance of his secret base with the yellow fox, revealing a staircase leading into a basement underground while the others stared at his tired, retreating form.

Silver gave one last look to the others leaving the base before he went through the door.

With Espio in the lead, Knuckles and the Chaotix had begun to make their way towards City once more - which wasn’t far away - with a entirely different goal in mind: to rescue as many survivors as they possibly can. 

But they had so many questions to ask, such as:

Who was that mobian?

What was that power?

When did Eggman manufacture so many robots?

How did Sonic lose?

… What was Shadow doing, fighting for the other side?

“You guys don’t think that was really Shadow, do you?” Knuckles asked after they had walked some distances away from the base.

“We all saw him - it definitely was the guy.” Vector replied with a sigh. “Can’t believe that he went off with Eggman again.”

Espio stayed silent.

“I don’t think it was him!” Charmy commented with some indignity. The bee believed firmly that Shadow the Hedgehog wouldn’t do such a thing, as he had admired the black hedgehog as a heroic figure.

“But you saw it with your own eyes, Charmy!” argued the crocodile. “If you don’t think it was him, you have to proof it! Show your evidence!”

“Well, if you think it was him, you have to show your evidence too!”

“Enough.” Espio chided, loud enough for both parties arguing to hear; effectively breaking apart the verbal fight. “This is not the time to argue; we must hurry to rescue the survivors in City.”

“Well, you heard him.” Knuckles walked ahead with the chameleon by his side.

The two behind gave each other a disappointed sigh while shaking their heads before following the two leaders.

The ninja was very used to the two’s bickering; the Chaotix had their own internal fights very frequently - especially between Charmy and Vector; those two just found topics to have verbal conflicts on practically all the time.

And a few minutes later - with no further arguments breaking out - the four mobians had approached City for the second time that day. It was already evening; and the sun had begun to set. They had to hurry with their rescue before robots could take mobians hostage.

The thing was: Eggman had preferred for his robots to not kill civilians; with the excuse being that he needed people to rule over. However, this preference of his was not always completely understood amongst his creations; caused by several negligence in their artificial intelligence coding.

Which was what they were worried about.

To make things more uncertain; they had no idea how that new henchman of Eggman’s operated: Does he spare lives, or is he ruthless?

The uncertainty is the main worry. They had literally no information regarding this new, powerful foe that somehow; had the abilities to defeat Sonic the Hedgehog - the Hero of Mobius, one of the strongest living being.

Espio made a mental note to talk to Silver about his duel against the masked mobian after they return to the hedgehog’s base.

And speaking of the time-traveller…

Silver the Hedgehog was currently laid in his bed, as he stared at the small device held in his hand.

Why did the device malfunction?

It made absolutely no sense; it had never did that before ever since he first used it. The time machine should have been calibrated to the timelines of the physical universe a long time ago.

Although; he did not know exactly how the thing worked, because he had acquired it by accident one day - but the thing was: He did not remember when, and where he had first gotten this gadget.

He sighed.

“... Tails.” he softly called out, and the fox had responded by slightly turning his head in his general direction. “I need your help with something.”

“... with what?” the young fox had stood up slowly and walked to Silver, and the white hedgehog had handed him the device that was in his hand.

The device was a strangely lightweight object, that seemed to be designed to be able to be worn around the wrist. It had a numerical keypad on the main panel, and it had small, metallic spikes - receivers? - poking out of the edges of the panel.

“What is this?” Tails asked, curious of this new gadget of which he had never seen before.

“It’s a time machine.” Silver replied, causing the fox’s eyes to widen, and his jaws to gape slightly. “... I know what you’re thinking, but you can’t go back and save him.”

Tails’s shoulders visibly sagged, as his two tails lost their energy once more and touched the ground.

“I’m sorry.” apologised the white hedgehog. “I did try to reach before the invasion happened; but the time machine had somehow miscalibrated, and sent me to the wrong time - I think using it might be dangerous.”

“... it’s not your fault, Silver…” Tails replied, as he stared down at the gadget in his hands. “I’ll try to take a look at it, and figure out what’s wrong.”

“I guess I’ll tell you what I know about it first...”

Meanwhile, the four mobians had reached, and stared at the area of civilisation.

City was in a really, really bad shape: Buildings that burnt previously had already turned into ashes - even with the firefighters working overtime while having to deal with robots - and there were more instances of rubble from damaged structures that they could count.

“Let’s split up.” Espio suggested, which earned nodding heads from the others.

“Follow me, Charmy.” Vector ordered, causing the bee to fly in his direction.

They had dispersed in an instant; with the purple chameleon deciding to make his way down to Park Avenue to start off his search.

Focusing his senses; the ninja chameleon kept his hearing peeled as he walked down the street for any sounds that could help him locate any survivors that still remains in the concrete jungle.

Right now, City was a hostile, dangerous place that no one should be in.

 

-

 

Gadget was heading out from his apartment after he had collected the items most precious to him: A photograph of him with his mother, and the clear lens black spectacle that he wore constantly; but had forgotten earlier this morning.

Yes; the red wolf didn’t actually need glasses. It was an item he received after he had complained to his mother about how plain his face looked; and he treasured it since.

Especially after that incident; after he never saw her again.

Gadget took out his mobile phone, and took a picture of the treasured photograph.

“Hello, pathetic beings.”

Those were the exact words he had heard, before a red light seemingly shot out of nowhere and exploded the ground that he was on; and people around the wolf screamed in terror.

And Gadget saw a masked, floating mobian with black fur, and white, long locks of hair. There was also an evil-looking ruby that glowed threateningly on his chest.

“I have unraveled out an even greater usage of my powers: and guess; who shall be the new test subjects?” the ominous voice nearly purred - with vicious intent.

Another burst of bright red laser shot out from his index finger, and had completely decimated several mobians around him.

How was he doing that?!

Gadget had immediately ran, trying to find cover while terror built up through his entire being - he just clearly witnessed the death of several civilians.

He didn’t want to be the next target.

Another explosion was heard, and he found himself losing his balance and falling down on the floor from the resulting shockwave.

The black-furred mobian chuckled darkly as he shot out lasers to the mobians surrounding him.

He was the only one left alive.

Gadget had never felt so afraid, had never felt his blood freeze up; like ice in his veins.

His breathing quickened, and he began to hyperventilate in the hopeless situation.

“I can sense your terror, wolf - you’re making such a delightful performance...” the masked mobian seemed to enjoy the devastation he had caused. “If you entertain me further; I might actually consider letting you live…”

The red wolf stared with wide open eyes as he continued to breath nervously.

“Did I mention; that I absolutely despise wolves…?” the black-furred mobian growled out. “Perhaps you should run, like the pathetic wolf that you-”

A loud, abrupt cry was heard from the ominous voice.

A flying white hedgehog, surrounded by a bright cyan glow, had appeared out of nowhere and knocked the black-furred mobian out of balance in the air. Then, the hedgehog slowly flew down in front of the masked being; seemingly subtly taunting the enemy.

“You!” the masked mobian angrily accused.

“I’m not done with you yet.” he heard the white-furred mobian declare. His eyes were wide open, and he seemed to be breathing quite deeply.

Gadget felt relief from the tension of the peril as his saviour engaged with the enemy.

“Neither am I, hedgehog.” replied the enemy smoothly, as he was once again hovering in the air without disturbance. “How glad am I, to see you once more; so I can wipe you out myself.”

“I’d like to see you try!”

And both fighters charged at each other at the same time, reenacting to Gadget: something similar to what he had seen in movies, when two fighter jets go up against each other - no holds barred, guns ablaze.

However; this time, the jets in his memories were now replaced with real, actual mobians who had the power and ability of flight, as they constantly threw punches, and made bursts of sudden bright light appear and fade away in an instant as their means of attacking. 

It was as if he walked into a magic show; and the performers could slaughter him in an instant. He realised that he was distracted; staring at the dogfight instead of looking for cover.

Suddenly, he jumped in shock as he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He turned his around in fear, but he was revealed: a purple chameleon which seemed to be dressed up with gloves and shoes with thick, black cuffs, and designs suiting his skin colour.

“Get into cover.” the unfamiliar chameleon pointed to a direction behind him; revealing a stack of wooden crate boxes in an alleyway.

The red wolf immediately scurried over and hid.

Meanwhile, Espio had stared hard at the white hedgehog currently engaged in yet another fight with the masked enemy. He felt fury build inside him as he realised that Silver had not gone to sleep; and had instead sneaked out to help.

He sighed through his nostrils in an effort to calm himself down. Silver had meant well.

“Take this, hedgehog!” the masked mobian exclaimed all of a sudden, as a bright flash of red light exploded out from the glowing jewel attached to his chest.

Silver’s eyes widened as his brain registered a giant missile launcher suddenly appearing right in front of him out of nowhere, as Espio watched in horror from the ground.

Where did that come from?

BAM!

A missile shot out, and Infinite watched as the projectile approach the white hedgehog. The masked being had already began to celebrate his victory in his own head, while he watched the missile pass right through the hedgehog’s body; leaving Silver unscathed.

The missile exploded on impact with the ground.

“What…?” Infinite gasped with his eyes wide behind his mask, unsure of what had happened. “... how did you...!?”

Silver breathed heavily, as he tried to recover from the exertion of his mind while fighting off his extreme fatigue.

“Mind games don’t work against me…” huffed the exhausted hedgehog time-traveller. “If you’re going to fight me, you’re gonna have to do it the right way!”

Espio the Chameleon had watched the scene unfold with extreme confusion: He had just seen the missile go through Silver, and blow up the ground of Park Avenue!

What was happening?

The ninja chameleon suddenly felt his feet leave the ground, and he gasped in surprise at the unexpected turn of events.

“Well, if I can’t harm you; I’ll just pick on your friend over here!” declared the enemy; as Espio felt his world turn upside down.

“Don’t you dare!” Silver shouted, grabbing debris of the city’s destruction from the ground with his powers. “Take this!”

The debris was launched out of his holds; flying at straight at the enemy at an insane speed. And they had went right through the other’s body.

Silver gaped with his eyes wide, while the masked mobian had began to chuckle.

“Didn’t you say that mind games didn’t work against you?” he recalled, as he suddenly charged forward to strike. “Pathetic hedgehog!”

Silver had managed to dodge the attack immediately and had picked up Espio in his physical hold.

“Close your eyes, Espio!” he ordered, and the chameleon immediately obeyed, and shut his eyelids. “We’re getting out of here.”

“Why didn’t you stay in the base, Silver?” angrily questioned the purple chameleon as he felt himself being carried through the air at a fast speed. “You need to rest!”

“Stop talking, and try to focus on finding your bearings.”

Suddenly, Espio felt a violent force surrounding them before being burst away and released. Then, a loud cry from an ominous voice was heard before it faded away to silence.

“... Silver...”

“What did I just say?”

“... There’s someone I found earlier, back there in the alleyway.”

 

-

It was a tiring trip, and it had taken quite an exhausting blast of psychokinesis to his surroundings before Silver was able to give Infinite the slip, save Espio, and leave City with the survivor wolf.

Some time after escaping from the masked enemy capable of creating illusions, the purple chameleon had seemed to be able to gather back his bearings and had found the actual, real ground again.

“... you can put me down now, Silver.” Espio whispered, and he was promptly set back down on the ground by the hyperalert hedgehog.

He took a few steps. It definitely felt good to be able to walk normally again.

They had arrived at the base, and Gadget found himself being taken by the two mobians into the bunker, to a big room located underground. 

The interior walls were reinforced with brick. Stacks of newspapers could be found in one corner of the room, and a computer was in the middle of the room connected up to big screens. The the edges of the room were filled with big wooden crates.

“Oh good, you’re finally back.” acknowledged Knuckles, welcoming their return.

Charmy and Vector - who were pacing around - turned their heads at the arrival of Silver and Espio, along with a new face.

The white hedgehog was in a really, really bad state: His quills looked more disheveled than usual, and his eyes looked like they were going to shut any second. He took more frequent deep breaths, and his couldn’t even stand up straight anymore.

Tails was currently swiping his finger around the screen of his Miles Electric, as he tried to analyse the time machine that Silver asked him to take a look at. The young fox had taken notice of the new guest.

“A survivor we found from the city.” Espio gestured to the red-furred wolf, who looked away awkwardly.

“Took ya long.” commented Vector with folded arms.

“We ran into-”

A loud, sudden gasp was heard from the corner of the room, catching the attention of the white hedgehog, and the purple chameleon; and they were presented with the sight of a pinkish-purple cat walking towards the red wolf.

There was also another pine-green bird; sat on top of one of the crates in the room.

“You’re Gadget the Wolf, aren’t you?” she excitedly asked, revealing the wolf’s name to the rest of the mobians in the room. “I love your performances! I watch you play all the time!”

The red wolf just awkwardly blinked, as the cat smothered him in questions and elation of an eager fan. Gadget did not speak a single word in response.

“... you don’t think he’s mute, do you?” Silver whispered to the chameleon. This went unnoticed by the rescued wolf who was distracted by the cat.

“I have no idea.” he replied. And suddenly, Espio’s demeanour became more stern. “But now, I insist that you go rest, Silver.”

The almost-collapsing time-traveller began to walk tiredly to his room in a slouching manner.

“Shall I lock you in your room?” added the chameleon rhetorically.

“That won’t be necessary.” Silver replied with a slightly irritated reaction due to fatigue, as he made his way to his bed; all the while feeling the ninja’s piercing eyes focused on him.

And he - quite literally - passed out on his bed.

He was going to be out of it for quite some time.

Around half an hour later: four of Sonic’s friends - the fox, the echidna, the crocodile and the chameleon - were stood around a corner of the room, while they discussed recent events. 

While that happened, Charmy was busy keeping their new guests acquainted with the group.

“You ran into that guy again?” Vector’s eyes widened.

“Yes. Silver is able to get us out before he could track us down.” Espio recalled with slightly furrowed eye ridges. “I have no idea how; but Silver told me that the enemy fights using illusions that are somehow, able to affect reality.”

“... a false reality, huh…” Knuckles mumbled, rubbing his chin with his right hand.

“That shouldn’t be possible.” Tails established - he had never heard; or seen such things happening before.

“But it did happen, Tails.” disagreed the Guardian. “We all saw it happen. That guy is definitely a new weapon of Eggman’s!”

“But, Knuckles-” Tails argued back with some indignance. “-Eggman builds robots! He doesn’t create bio-weapons!”

“He is right, Guardian.” agreed the ninja chameleon. “Somehow, Silver can directly see through the illusions created, and nullify the effects. However; it took a big toll out of his mental spirit. I myself have experienced the effects; and it was not the most pleasant of experiences.”

The fox stared at the chameleon for a moment.

“How did you snap out of the illusion?” Tails inquired.

“It was Silver’s idea.” Espio began. “He had told me to simply shut my eyes, and focus on finding my bearings of the actual physical reality. Even with my trained mind; it had taken quite the time.”

“... it might be because of the guy’s psychokinesis abilities…” Vector mumbled; with his detective mind trying to work out connections.

The conversation fell silent.

“Hey.”

It was that pine-green bird that Vector had rescued from City, and brought back to the base.

“I wanna join your fight.” he declared, with a serious look and posture. “I wanna take back my city from those robots.”

“I could join too!” the purple cat accompanied.

“Who’re they?” asked Espio.

“That one’s Corvin the Bird-” Knuckles gestured at the green mobian, followed by the purple mobian. “-and that’s Fuschia the Cat.”

The echidna’s eyes suddenly widened subtly; as his brain presented him with an idea.

“That’s right!” exclaimed the Guardian. “We could gather people, and form a resistance against Eggman!”

“We could.” Vector agreed. “But first of all, we need some furniture in this place; my legs could use some rest.”

 

-

 

Silver had slept for one whole entire day without waking up.

And when he did wake up, he felt a subtle headache disturbing him. Then, he made his way slowly towards the main quarters of his secret base, which Sonic’s friends have now adopted.

The white hedgehog was greeted with the sight of three unknown mobians that he have never seen before, and that the layout of his secret hideout has been altered drastically. A pine-green bird and a red wolf currently moved empty crates around the room to create dividers around the base.

“Oh good, you’re up.” stated Tails, and he returned to staring at his laptop screen in thought.

“Hello, Silver!” Amy greeted the groggy hedgehog as she supervised two strangers with the movement of some crates, pointing at a direction. “Put this one over there.”

When did she arrive?

“What happened while I was out?” inquired Silver as he massaged his own head to ease the migraine.

“I’ve been analysing your device, and they went back to Green Hill Town to gather some supplies.” Tails replied, transferring information from a piece of paper into his laptop. “This place really needs some proper rooms.”

“This is my base.” reminded Silver, as he took notice of bags of food items in a corner of the room.

“And it will soon be a shelter for any survivors of Eggman’s attacks.” Espio was leaning on a wall at the side of the room, with his arms folded as he spoke with a relaxed posture. “Unless you can come up with another base that we could use for our operations.”

“I’m a psychokinetic, Espio, not a magician.” deadpanned the white hedgehog. “You’re going to have to find another base anyway; there are too many people on Mobius for one shelter.”

“And the echidna tried to find some recruits to join the resistance against Eggman.” added the ninja chameleon.

“ESPIO!” exclaimed Vector, without warning while he hysterically gestured towards Knuckles. “Do not get this ECHIDNA started on that topic again! I’ve had enough of his rambling!”

“He had stood on the fountain and shouted at everyone too!” laughed Charmy.

“Shut up!” came the response from the red echidna, with a slightly annoyed and indignant look.

The time-travelling hedgehog raised an eye ridge at the display, before turning his attention to the two mobians moving his empty crates - that he used for practice - around the room. The red wolf was struggle slightly while the green bird moved the crate without issue.

He decided to help, as he was feeling quite recharged from the - frankly, long - sleep that he had just indulged in. Focusing his mind on the box, he channeled his energy while aiming his palm at the object.

The two mobians previously carrying the wooden box gasped as they suddenly felt the object leave their grip and start floating right in front of their eyes.

“What the-” came the reaction from the bird.

“Where do you want this?” asked Silver, as he kept the box steady up in the air with his powers, while the green mobian recovered from his surprise.

“Uhm-” the bird cleared his throat and pointed at a direction where the bunk beds were. “-over there; stacked on top of the other crates.”

Moving the boxes over by walking towards the direction of the bunk beds, Silver asked another question. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Corvin.” came the reply as the box stacked neatly atop the other boxes.

“... umm…” a tiny noise caught Silver’s attention.

Turning around, he saw the red wolf that he brought back to the base. He looked incredibly nervous, and he was not making eye contact with the hedgehog.

“... thank you-” came the soft voice which spoke relatively quickly. “-for saving me…”

So… the wolf was not a mute; but was instead, incredibly shy…?

“You’re… welcome.” replied Silver, awkwardly - never having had to deal with such a situation before. “Can I know your name?”

“My name is… Gadget.” came the reply as the wolf nervously adjusted his spectacles.

Unexpectedly, the red-furred mobian suddenly inhaled deeply and looked at Silver the Hedgehog daringly with his framed eyes.

“I wish to join the resistance!” he exclaimed with wide open, determined eyes as the time-traveller stared back with equal amounts of surprise.

“... okay…?”

 

-


End file.
